POLLUTED AIR: Like smoking a pack a day, study says
September 10, 2019 • 1 min read
-- At least smokers can kick their filthy habit. But spare a thought for people living in metropolitan areas shrouded in smog.
A study investigating the long-term effects of breathing smog, which is rich in ground-level ozone, is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, leading to emphysema – a debilitating chronic disease usually associated with cigarette smoking.
Ground-level ozone is produced when UV light reacts with pollutants from fossil fuels.
The study looked at more than 7,000 adults aged 45 to 84 for over a decade in six US metropolitan areas, including Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Researchers scanned patients to identify pollutants associated with the development of emphysema. Ozone topped the list.
Exposure to ozone irritates and inflames the lining of the lungs when it is breathed in, causing asthma attacks and inviting infection.
Dr Graham Barr, the Hamilton Southworth professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Centre, and a senior author of the paper, concluded that cigarette smoking is by far the best known cause of emphysema – and the fact that ozone is in the same league was “definitely a surprise.”