Top 10 disease caused by Air Pollution

 

Air pollution is one of the world’s leading risk factors for death, attributed to 5 million deaths each year. Air pollution is attributed to 9% of deaths globally. It is also one of the leading risk factors for disease burden.

Disease caused by air pollution

1. Lung Cancer

While previously lung cancer was associated with those who smoke excessively, new evidence suggests that indoor air pollution can also be carcinogenic. Air pollution contributes to lung cancer, especially in people who have grown up in highly contaminated areas, since exposure to air pollutants during the developmental years can have a significant impact on the lungs.

2. Asthma

This is one of the most common diseases that can affect the humans breathing in the polluted air. This is a chronic disease in which inflammation is caused in the air passages of the human body and the person finds it difficult to breathe. Healthy people can develop the disease after years of living or working in a highly polluted area. This type of asthma is known as “occupational asthma” since it is the result of working in a particularly contaminated area.

3. Affects Pregnant Women and immune system defects

There are a number of defects that can occur in the newborn as well as unborn babies owing to exposure to the polluted air and breathing of polluted air by the pregnant mother respectively. The babies born in the areas with air pollution will have lower immunity against the infections, cough and cold and might also exhibit some inborn allergies as well.

4. Heart disease

Air pollution has been shown to be a factor in the development of all heart diseases, including heart attacks and strokes. Secondhand smoke can increase the incidence of these diseases, as well as carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. Air pollution has been shown to be the cause of heart disease as its pollutants reach the lungs and seep through the blood vessels producing an inflammatory response and raising the heart rate.

5. Autism

Recent studies have revealed that air pollution can also cause Autism — a disease in which the patient has a tendency to live alone.

6. Shortened Life Span

Not necessarily a disease, but air pollution is also having an impact on a person’s general health and wellness. Multiple studies point out that the lifespan of a person living in a metro city like Delhi is about three years less than a person living in a cleaner rural or urban environment.

7. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition associated with frequent lung inflammation and infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia. Smoking is its main cause, but prolonged exposure to intense air pollution can also cause it.

8. Emphysema

Smoking is responsible for 80% of cases of emphysema, but pollution and airborne contaminants in the workplace also cause the disease. Air pollutants and smoke accumulate in the lungs and damage the mucus that keeps the lungs clean and healthy, leading to infection, inflammation, and obstruction.

9. Premature Deaths

It has been found that pollutants in the air can lead to premature deaths owing to different reasons such as asphyxiation and extreme reactions caused by the body to the pollutant matter. Every year a huge number of premature deaths are registered all across the world owing to the pollution.

10. Pneumonia

Polluted air also carries bacteria that get inhaled into the respiratory tract which in turn causes pneumonia. The disease might get worse with continued breathing of the polluted air and the disease might get worse with some other disease caused by the pollution.