Shocking News - Air Pollution kills as many people as cigarettes. Health Care, Fitness, Wellness,

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Shocking News:
Air Pollution Kills as Many People as Cigarettes!
When she turned 62 in 2012, Lata Dewan and her husband decided to
move down from their home in small-town Georgia. They moved into
a brand-new townhouse in the commercial center of Atlanta. "It was
my dream home ... close to my daughter's family."
Dewan was excited to spend more time with his grandson and lead an
active life in the city. But in the first year in his new house, he started
having trouble breathing. At first, he tried allergy pills, thinking that it
was only a rough ragweed season. Over the next 5 years, he had long
and long stretches of wheezing with trouble breathing and needed
more and more drugs. She started a short-acting inhaler, then a long-
acting inhaler, and eventually needed steroids to keep her airway
open.
Winters were the most difficult. "I had no energy for months ... I
could barely breathe," Dewan said. Her lung doctor dismissed the
usual suspects. Mr. Dewan had no history of lung disease. He did not

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smoke, no one else was smoking. And did not change his diet or start
using new products in his home.
His Visit in India
Lata Dewan left, and her husband, Raj, walked off a busy, traffic-
choked street in a quiet part of downtown Atlanta. His lungs thank
him. Once he had similar problems on his rare visits to India, which
have some of the highest pollution levels in the world.
Finding that gridlock outside her window in Atlanta helped her void.
“The car packs the road from morning to night; Only the evening will
be clear." Dewan and his doctor began to suspect the polluted air that
she had been breathing for years was having a huge impact on her
health.
For millions of Americans like Dewanji, every breath brings toxic air
into the lungs. There, pollutants can mix into the bloodstream and
cause damage throughout the body. The American Lung Association's
2019 "State of the Air" report shows that more than 141 million
people live in counties with unhealthy air, an increase of 7 million
from the 2018 report.
Science clearly shows that unhealthy air is dangerous. Air pollution,
particularly invisible, airborne particulate pollution - known as PM
2.5 - increases the risk of serious health problems. And it can kill.
Despite very low levels play a role in death from cardiac and lung
diseases.
Correlations
The relationship between health risks and air pollution is so strong
that the Director-General of the World Health Organization; Tedros
Adenom Ghebaius, Ph.D., call air pollution the new tobacco. Recent

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estimates suggest that polluted air played a role in bus breathing.
More than 8 million deaths worldwide, outnumber tobacco deaths.
Richard Muller, Ph.D., a physicist and climate researcher at the
University of California, compares tobacco one step further. Based on
their work, in 2018, the average American harmed about one-third of
cigarette health every day. While one-third of cigarettes a day may
not sound much, it adds more than a hundred cigarettes in 1 year, and
more than 1,000 in 10 years. He said that every man, woman, and
child in America has been included in the health risks caused by air
pollution.
“Air pollution is the biggest environmental disaster in the world
today. "In my mind, it's condemnable that we're not paying too much
attention to it," Muller says.
Are we all smokers?
Müller warns that he is not suggesting that breathing in air pollution is
actually similar to smoking cigarettes. This is like a mathematical
example of how both can be equally damaged for some time.
Yet research suggests that the health risks from cigarette smoking and
air pollution are similar. A recent study found that breathing air with a
slight increase in air pollution levels over 10 years causes the same
type of lung damage, which appears on a day after 29 years of
smoking cigarettes. Air pollution also leads to many other health risks
connected with smoking - from emphysema and lung cancer to heart
disease and stroke. Like cigarettes, even small amounts are not safe.
The more we inhale, the greater the risk.
Researchers have found that even a slight increase in particulate
pollution increases the risk of dying from heart or lung disease and

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lung cancer. People who have never smoked are also more likely to
get lung cancer and this leads to death due to increased levels of air
pollution.
Pretty much everyone understands air pollutants throughout, which is
partly due to air pollution causing health obstacles in so many people.
Dr. Egdon Pope, Ph.D., professor of economics at Brigham Young
University and the effects of World-renowned experts on effects say.
Air pollution. He prefers to equate air pollution to second-hand smoke
rather than actual smoke. He describes- living in a space with high
pollution is higher like living with characters who smoke 2 to 3 packs
daily.
There is another major difference as well. Unlike cigarettes, air
pollution does not usually come with a warning label or a telltale
odor. For most of us, there are no signs that we are "breathing" until
the damage has been done. And we do not have control over the air
we breathe.
What are we doing
Cigarette smokers inhale more than 7,000 chemicals each time they
light, and at least 69 of these are thought to be the cause of cancer.
The structure of air pollution is very diverse and depends on where
we reside. In the US, fossil fuel pollution is the biggest killer, with an
estimated 200,000 deaths per year. Burning fossil fuels such as gas
and coal, from cars to power plants, removes many dangerous
pollutants into the air. Every time we start our engines, cancer-
causing toxins such as benzene are filled with air with hazardous
gases and particles. Whenever coal is burnt, dangerous fine particles,
mercury, lead, and other heavy metals are spread in the sky. Even

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natural phenomena such as wildfires can harm our health, sending
particles and dangerous gases far into the air.
Why it Happen
These gases and toxins can be mixed through chemical reactions to
create ozone and fine particulate pollutants, which are the most
common and most harmful pollutants found throughout the US and
worldwide. Particle pollution is not really a thing. It is an umbrella
term for any small particles, which is smaller than a grain of sand,
mixed with liquid. The smaller the particles, the more effective they
affect the body's defenses. Fine and ultrafine particles are considered
the most dangerous because toxic contaminants such as metals and
small allergens can ride on them and travel deep into the lungs.
Ozone is the core of the smog. Ground-level ozone can cause
shortness of breath, asthma, and lung swelling. Toxic ozone is
produced when some gases and chemicals are cooked in the heat of
the sun. According to summer temperatures globally due to climate
change, researchers say, ozone will remain more common and longer
after exposure to it.
What happens when we breathe?
In the short term, spikes in air pollution can worsen medical problems
such as asthma and heart disease. For a long time, low-level
exposures considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) may also play a role in developing lung and heart
diseases. More and more research now finds links to damage almost
every organ in our body, from our brain to our bones.
Dean Schröfnagel, MD, director of the University of Illinois at
Chicago and the Forum of the International Respiratory Society, helps
people make connections between the steady stream of "low-dose"
pollution. Down the line. “Air pollution is really a silent killer. ... as

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long as people have lung cancer or heart disease, they think ... that oh,
it's bad luck or bad genes'; He did not realize that air pollution could
also have a role in many years. "
All Human beings are Victims
Younger children and older adults face the greatest risk because their
body defenses are less strong than healthy adults. For children, the
loss may begin before their birth. Air pollution can cause early births
and low birth weight, which can cause infants to have lifelong health
problems.
After birth, babies face a greater risk from air pollution because their
organs are still developing. They also carry high amounts of
pollutants as they spend more time outdoors, breathe faster than
adults, and breathe more through their mouths. Nostrils are very good
at keeping pollution out of the body.
Breathing in polluted air at critical development times can also
damage young children's brains, affecting how they think and feel.
Polluted air has been associated with a higher risk of mental health
problems such as autism, low intelligence, attention problems, and
anxiety. The elderly brain may also see harmful effects along with air
pollution. Older adults living close to busy roads have a higher risk of
dementia. And spikes in air pollution can commence to a stroke.
Researchers have begun to see why air pollution has such far-reaching
effects on our bodies. In addition to direct damage from many parts of
the body, when the lungs are bombarded with pollutants, a set of
signals leads to the release of chemical messengers into the blood.
These chemicals can damage the lining of blood vessels, increase the
risk of blood clots and cause inflammation that can affect each organ
of our body.
Silent Killer
Most of us do not know about the pollutants we are breathing. Also
paying less attention to the long-term health risks of air pollution.

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In the United States, air monitoring stations collect data on pollutants
such as ozone and ozone so that people can be alerted when the level
is acceptable. But these monitors do not provide neighborhood-level
information and cannot capture "hot spots" where people like Dewanji
live. This is perfect for people living on busy roads. Even on alert
days, people who do not have symptoms may not think that they
should be warned.
Two young app developers in Paris want to change this.
Amauri Martini came into Muller's air pollution-to-cigarette
calculation about a year ago and describes it as an "aha" moment.
Martini and designer Marcello Coelho created a free app using
Muller's formula and PM2.5 data from hundreds of air quality data
stations in cities around the world. When the app is open, it locates
your phone, finds the nearest Air Monitor data for PM2.5, and
converts it to the "equivalent" number of health-damaging cigarettes.
He found that many of his American downloads occurred during a
California wildfire in 2018 when the app would have made 45
staggering performances per day in a wildfire area.
Martini and Coelho stress that their "main goal is to raise awareness
of the risk of air pollution. ... What was amazing about the equation
was that it was really solid for everyone to do something that was
really This very essence of PM2.5 was transformed into scientific
perception.… Everyone knows what effect cigarettes can have on
your body. "And everyone knows that to smoke cigarettes is" safe. "
Per level is not ".
Why don't we cut back?
Over the past 20 years, Americans have mostly been shielded from
high levels of air pollution because EPA programs have greatly
improved air quality. Annual particles have decreased by an average
of 40% since 2000. According to a 2017 Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) Congressional report, EPA's air regulations save tens
of billions of dollars.

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Most of the savings are known as "co-benefits", meaning benefits to
human health that result from lower health care costs and fewer
premature deaths.
“We have done a good job of reducing our air pollution. It has
improved our health, and we have done it at a time of rapid economic
expansion, ”says Pope. "It is very clear that this is not a trade-off
between clean air and jobs. The reality is that we can reduce our air
pollution, as well as improve economic activity. So it's a win-win
situation." Is like. "
Air Quality
But recent changes to the EPA may affect air quality and health far
and wide in the future. The leadership of the EPA has shifted from
important committees such as the Clean Air Scientific Advisory
Committee (CASAC) to replace independent science advisors and has
stopped a panel of experts who study the most up-to-date particle
pollution science are doing.
But the ALA (American Lung Association) and other health advocacy
groups have raised alarm about EPA plans to gush or limit many
programs that curtailed air pollution and recover the health of
American societies. The organization cites:
Plans to roll back fuel efficiency standards for trucks and cars. Repeal
the Clean Power Plan and replace it with a rule that can increase
emissions. Changes how EPA is beneficial to human health by
reducing pollution from toxic air pollutants including mercury and
PM2.5
According to experts, all these changes will probably have the
opposite effect of progress in reducing air pollution and preventing
related deaths.
What happens when we leave?
Although air pollution levels are better in most communities in
America than in other places in the world, we can do more to reduce

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our risk of long-term health problems. “The only thing that makes
sense based on the evidence is that we should continue to try to
reduce our risk of air pollution. "It doesn't come without vigilance,
and it doesn't come without efforts," Pope speaks.
Did you know
New electronic tolls (E-ZPass) in New Jersey and Pennsylvania
reduced traffic congestion from idle cars, improved birth weight, and
reduced early births for mothers living less than 1.5 miles from the
toll plaza.
Much of what, we understand about the health advantages of clean air
comes from "natural operations." Whereas researchers study what
happens to people in areas after pollution levels decrease, such as
when large Factories are closed or traffic routes changed. Most of
these studies show improvement in health quickly.
After the closure of coal and oil power plants in California, there were
fewer victims in neighboring communities. New electronic tolls (E-
ZPass) in New Jersey and Pennsylvania reduced traffic congestion
from idle cars, improved birth weight, and reduced early births for
mothers living less than 1.5 miles from the toll plaza . When air
pollution was controlled during the Olympics in Beijing, birth weight
improved for infants in the area. And when traffic reopened during
the Olympics in Atlanta, there were fewer ER visits and hospitals for
asthma for local children.
Around the world, research suggests that fewer emissions lead to
cleaner air, less asthma, lungs that work better, and less cough,
congestion, and mucus in young children.
How can we protect ourselves?
The most reliable way to reduce the risk of health problems is to
bypass breathing in the polluted atmosphere. This is especially true
for pregnant women, infants, children, older adults, and people with
chronic medical problems. But if you live in high-traffic areas or
close to polluting factories, it is difficult to do so.

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Facemasks, especially those called Respirator Masks, if worn
properly, can filter out polluting effluents. The main problem is that
people have to buy the right mask and wear it with an airtight seal;
Otherwise, it does not filter out harmful pollution. Besides, most
masks do not filter out certain toxic gases and can still prevent
harmful lung irritation.
For most people, paying consideration to air quality signals is a good
start. It is very important to avoid outdoor activities on "unhealthy
wind days". Beyond air quality alert days, doctors recommend
walking or exercising in areas away from high-traffic roads and idle
cars or buses. High-quality HEPA air filters can reduce air particles in
the home. And eating a healthy diet and exercising can also reduce
health risks from air pollution.
Why Face Dirty Air
For Dewanjee, after trying air filters in her home and taking several
medications to improve breathing, she finally decided to walk away.
Two years ago, he found a home in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood
in Atlanta. Now 69, she sees a major improvement in her breathing.
"Myself see a big difference. I do not use any steroids, no inhalers.
Only, I use allergy pills for a few weeks a year. Me suspected these
difficulties when I travelled to India. ... That can't believe that I would
have the same problems here. "
But for the largest people, moving is not a choice. Schröfange l
emphasized that the most important thing people can do about the
risks of air pollution is. "If enough people say 'we don't want dirty air.
We want clean air, and we fear it's affecting our health'. Then the
decision-makers take steps to ensure. All that will be required to lift is
automobiles are cleaners and power plants are cleaners.” So we can
all breathe clean air.
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