Air pollution: a lifetime threat from conception to aging.

A new study shows that air pollution harms people at all stages of life, from reduced sperm count to impaired fetal development.

To review key data on the impact of air pollution, the researchers examined more than 35,000 studies from the past 10 years that have detailed the ways in which air pollution harms from prenatal life to old age.

As part of the study, the team looked at research from the World Health Organization (WHO), the British Committee on the Health Effects of Air Pollution (COMEAP), the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), the Institute for Health Impacts, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Particularly harmful are PM2.5 particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), both of which come from car exhaust, say researchers at Imperial College London’s Environmental Research Group.

They added that there is no evidence to establish a threshold at which PM2.5 particles cause no harm.

The researchers wrote: “While the main figures on the health effects of air pollution focus on the equivalent number of premature deaths, the broader implications are hidden in plain sight in the contribution of air pollution to the burden of chronic disease. This affects our quality. life and have a significant cost to society due to the cost of care”. Additional health and social well-being, in addition to our ability to learn, work and contribute to society.

During pregnancy, air pollution harms fetal development and can cause low birth weight, miscarriage and low sperm count in men.

In children, it can delay lung development, cause asthma, and affect blood pressure, cognition, and mental health.

And in adulthood, the possibility of premature death increases due to many chronic diseases, cancer and strokes.

The researchers explained: “Perhaps the most important new finding is the data on the effects of air pollution on brain health, including mental health and dementia, as well as effects in early life that could lead to a future public health burden. Both represent significant costs, but not quantified by society and the economy.

“Policies should aim to reduce the cumulative harms of air pollution and ill health, and to protect people who are exposed to current concentrations of pollution,” say the authors of the current article.

Source: Independent