From Lnscommunityradio
Air pollution is a key contributing factor to the increasing prevalence of asthma, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, and a host of other diseases. Learn about common air pollutants, and find out how to avoid them and breathe easier.
How Bad is it Really?
A Canadian study demonstrates how harmful air pollution can be. It found that children with asthma were 40 per cent more likely to suffer asthma attacks on high-pollution summer days than on days with average pollution levels. The Ontario Medical Association estimates that air pollution costs the province of Ontario health care system more than one billion dollars annually in “hospital admissions, emergency room visits, and absenteeism.”
Carbon Monoxide
Automobile emissions are the main source of carbon monoxide (CO) in the air. Invisible and odorless, CO invades your red blood cells and displaces life-giving oxygen. Consequently, less oxygen is carried to the cells in your body. People who suffer congestive heart failure (a life-threatening chronic condition in which the heart cannot pump out all the blood that enters its chambers) may be extremely vulnerable to the effects of CO.
What you can do: Regular car maintenance can help reduce your exposure. Because CO can escape from gasket leaks, holes in the muffler, or holes in the pipes, it’s critical to get your car’s combustion and exhaust systems checked out regularly. Even normal CO emissions can make you sick if your car is standing still with its motor running and there is no wind.
If you work on your car in your garage, make sure the garage door is completely open and that exhaust fumes from the garage do not enter your house. Also, keep vehicle windows closed in tunnels and enclosed parking garages. If you’re a smoker, quit—tobacco smoke contains high CO levels.
Ozone
Ground-level ozone (or smog) forms when sunlight reacts with chemicals emitted by cars and various commercial and industrial sources. Ozone is a powerful respiratory irritant. In high concentrations, it can severely limit your ability to take a deep breath, causing coughing, throat irritation, and discomfort on breathing. There is also evidence that ozone can lower resistance to respiratory disease (such as pneumonia), damage lung tissue, and aggravate chronic lung diseases (such as asthma or bronchitis). The severity of these effects increases with the concentration of ozone in the air, the length of exposure, and the amount inhaled.
When you exercise, you breathe faster. In high-ozone environments, this means that more ozone gets into your airways and lungs. Even healthy people may suffer breathing difficulties if they exercise outdoors when there’s an ozone alert. Ozone is at its worst on hot, stagnant summer afternoons in areas with large volumes of motor vehicle traffic.
The harmful ozone in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) should not be confused with the protective layer of ozone in the upper atmosphere (stratosphere), which screens out harmful ultraviolet rays.
What you can do: If possible, stay indoors in a cool, well-ventilated place on days when the air quality index is unhealthy. Children tend to be more sensitive to ozone pollution than adults because they breathe faster. During peak smog months (May to September), plan “must-be-outside” activities for early in the morning, when air pollution is lowest.
