Health and Environmental Impacts of Air Pollution - Essay Example

Air pollution: Health and Environmental Impacts Introduction Air pollution is the contamination ofthe air, either indoor or outdoor air. Air pollution affects the world’s population and its environs. Air pollution has major environmental and health hazards. W.H.O, which is the leading organization, confirmed that most of the diseases in the world and much more in developing countries are caused by air pollution. Indoor pollution has been on the rise as compared to outdoor pollution especially due to improper ventilation and gas used in cooking. Human activities cause global air pollution leading to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in urban India. This paper seeks to provide insights into the causes of air pollution, effects and regulation. Components of air pollution Particulate matter PM (PM) is the main component of air that cases pollution. PM is a complex mixture of suspended liquid and solid particles emitted by emissions and/or particles formed through atmospheric reaction of gases. Additionally, fine particles that majorly comprises of PM whose thickness is between 0.1 and 2.5 μm contribute greatly to air pollution (Gurjar et al., 2010). The fine particles remarkable comprises of various biologically fatal compounds. Majorly, it causes production of free radicals and oxidative stress. Accumulation of the inhaled particles triggers an array of problems in the heart and lungs. The problems range from pneumonia, asthma, and bronchitis. Ultrafine particles have a thickness of less than 0.1 μm and they do not last in the air since they quickly coagulate to form fine particles (Gurjar et al., 2010). Exposure to ultrafine particles leads to cancer, cardiovascular problems, and pulmonary diseases while prevalent exposure to CO leads to birth complications. This is because carbon monoxide combines with hemoglobin in the RBC to produce carboxy-hemoglobin a component that is apparently stable and hampers the RBC’s ability to transport oxygen within the body (Gurjar et al., 2010). Causes of air pollution Air pollution has adverse effects on both human being and the environment. Gaseous pollutants and suspended particulate matter (SPM) are the main causes of air pollution. SPM are composed of dust, fumes, mist and smoke. The SPM are more concentrated in the urban areas due to smoke from the industries, vehicles and other transporting carriages. Air pollution is also in the rural areas, it is caused by fire which generate smoke that if inhaled causes a lot of human disease. Since most of the inhabitants of the rural areas use coal and wood as their source of fire to cook, they pollute the indoor air and are at a higher risk of lung cancer due to the poor ventilation when cooking. Mining and quarrying is another cause of air pollution since it result to sulphur-dioxide, sulphur trioxide, volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide emersions to the atmosphere that pollute the air and are fatal when they are inhaled. In a study in India proves that women who cook using high pollutants that are mostly biomass and stoves are more prevalent of respiratory symptoms, lung function reduction, airway inflammation and covert pulmonary hemorrhage. These symptoms are the main causes of cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer and chronic respiratory diseases (Brunekreef & Holgate, 2002). Effects of air pollution Cardiovascular changes and Hypertension A case study of effects of air pollution in India reveals that air pollution causes more deaths through cardiovascular diseases compared to the respiratory diseases, which are more associated with pollution of air. The changes experienced in the cardiovascular and air pollution relate intimately. Cardiac inefficiency, myocardial infarction, angina and hypertension are in increase globally due to air pollution. In 1997, pollution-related respiratory diseases caused 8.5% deaths while cardiovascular contributed 39.5% of the total deaths in the United States. In urban India, risks and deaths due to cardiovascular ailments occur at a young age, unlike in Europe and the United States. Delhi recorded hypertension in 36.1% lifetime nonsmokers living in the city compared to the 9.5% of rural controls. The dominance of hypertension increased with increase in age. Despite the great prevalence, severity of hypertension was higher in the urban subjects. An important and positive association transpired between the PM levels in Delhi’s air, the systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure in Spearman’s correlation experiment. Particulate air toxins along with lifestyle are great contributors of the prevalence of hypertension in Delhi. The elderly and those with pre-existing cardiovascular diseases are at high risks of death due to air pollution. Chronic risk due to Cadmium, Chromium, and Nickel exposure Cadmium, Chromium, and Nickel are particulate matter which has adverse effects in the human body when trapped in the alveolar system as it causes changes in the expression of genes (Gurjar, 2010). The risk of being exposed to these toxic metals is in environmental and occupational settings. The level of toxicity of these metals was studied using liver cells from a rat which were treated with same concentrations of each metal. Patterns of gene expressions were then determined using DNA microarrays (Moore, 2003). They were found to induce oxidative stress that had unique and similar pathways and genes that responded to the stress. All of them were found to be genotoxic. Intensive DNA damage was found to occur in chromium responses only. Nickel resulted to hypoxic response induction and chromatin structure gene induction. It did this by replacing the iron in key proteins (Allan, 2007). Cadmium resulted to genes that were perturbed distinctly. These genes related to stress from the endoplasmic reticulum. It also invoked unfolded protein response and led to apoptosis. It is evident that the only biological process that was perturbed to all these metals is the oxidative stress (Gurjar, 2010). This is an effect that is well of these metals. Due to the adverse effects cause my air pollution in the environment and on human health, there is need to regulate air pollution. Regulation of air pollution The WHO guidelines for PM10 are air quality guidelines and policies that offer a global guideline on limits and thresholds relating to air pollutions caused by Particulate Matter (PM10). The guidelines address acceptable limits and thresholds of various particulate matter pollutants both indoor and outdoor. The guidelines are based on evaluations of expert scientific evidence of particulate matter (PM), Ozone (O3), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) and apply globally (Gurjar, Molina, & Ojha, 2010). These guidelines are based on the fact that air pollution is a major health risk and therefore there is need to have proper guidelines to minimize factors, which contribute to the pollution. The NEERI study results present an analysis of the PM10 pollution in different cities in India and the health impacts that are directly or indirectly caused by such pollution. Indoor pollution in most instances is higher than outdoor pollutions and hence is associated with higher risk of illness for various reasons. Firstly, according to WHO (2014) indoor pollution is 2 to 5 times more toxic than outdoor pollutions mostly caused by poor ventilation, which leads to their accumulation and hence more toxicity. Consequently, these factors lead to higher risk of indoor air-pollution related illnesses. Conclusion Air pollution has been recorded to effect humans and environment. It causes deaths through cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases. Hypertension is common among the lifetime nonsmokers, which increases with increase in age. Particulate matters are the main pollutants in the environment although metals such as Cadmium, Chromium, and Nickel have been noted to cause chronic disease. It is thus everyone’s duty to participate fully in the programs set-up to reduce air pollution. Industries who are the main pollutants of air should abide to the Montreal Protocol to ensure that the nations would not exceed 1986 CFC levels. The public is also expected to plant more trees to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. References Alan, B. (2007). 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Inorganic composition of fine particles in mixed mineral dust-pollution plumes observed from airborne measurements during ACE-Asia. Journal of Geophysical Research. doi:10.1029/2003JD004464 WHO. (2014, March). Household air pollution and health. Retrieved May 15, 2014, from WHO, Media Centre: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/ Read More