Air Pollution and Lungs

Relative effects of air pollution on lungs and heart.

IIt has been assumed that damage from exposure to tobacco smoke and other particulate air pollutants is imposed primarily on the lungs and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality rates in patients with preexisting lung disease. This is supported by a considerable amount of previous data, such as the mortality data from the December 1952 London smog disaster, which may have caused a...

Cleaner air, bigger lungs.

In the latter half of the 20th century, Los Angeles had, by many measures, higher levels of photochemical air pollutants than any other major city in the United States (Fig. 1). To address this problem, the California Air Resources Board and its partners became leaders in quantifying the health effects of air pollutants and in aggressively implementing pollution-control strategies. Even with th...

Air Pollution and Health

Air pollution and health.

OBJECTIVE To review the effects of air pollution on health, with special reference to data obtained locally in Hong Kong. DATA SOURCES Medline literature search (1960-1999), websites of the World Health Organization and Environmental Protection Department, Hong Kong, and a report from the Sub-Working Group on the Review of Hong Kong's Air Quality Objectives, 1999. STUDY SELECTION Key words ...

Asthma and air pollution

During the last decades research all over the world has highlighted the deleterious effects of pollution on respiratory health of adults and children. Nevertheless, air pollution still represents a significant threat to health. Children are more sensitive than adults to pollutants for several factors: increased respiration relative to body size; physiologic immaturity of respiratory and immunol...