Essay on Ambient Air Pollution and Diabetes Mellitus

Pollution continues to pose an enormous threat to residents of urban cities worldwide. In the August 2008 Monthly Update, it is stated that approximately 800,000 deaths each year can be attributed to outdoor air pollution, making pollution the single most harmful environmental hazard to human health in urban areas (Kallman). The fact that pollution kills hundreds of thousands of people each year alone portrays just how dangerous living in these conditions can be. Kallman writes about a study which proves an increase in upper respiratory diseases, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory mortality, and low birth weights when exposed to air pollutants (August 2008: Monthly Update). These can be very serious diseases and complications which, when contracted, can lead to death or very serious illnesses. There

Diabetes affects over 180 million people in the US and is projected that by 2025 this figure will increase to 300 million.

Diabetes mellitus has a worldwide prevalence of 8.3 percent of the population with the amount of new cases diagnosed per year

Did you know many upper respiratory diseases such as asthma and others diseases like cataracts and skin cancer are aggravated by air pollution. The NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) states that “the following air pollutants are common triggers of asthma, ground level ozone, sulfur dioxide, fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxide.” Air pollution is the presence in or introduction into the air of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects.

Air pollution can contribute to a number of different types of diseases. “Poor air quality puts the most vulnerable among us, like children and seniors, at risk for asthma, strokes, and other illnesses” (Texas Clean Air Project, 2017). It is not realized how much air pollution can affect a person. People that already have health issues are more at risk than a healthier person. “The strongest evidence so far relates to a possible contribution of air pollution to the etiology of Alzheimer’s disease” (Costa, 2017). Alzheimer’s disease affects a person’s brain as they lose their memory. This diseases is one that takes a person’s life away as they cannot remember sometimes even who they are.

Everyone in the New York metropolitan area breathes air that fails to meet the health standards, and citizens suffer serious health impact from breathing that dirty air. The relationship between air pollution and health affects everyone. Air pollution is constantly affecting people and putting them at sick, even though the degree of pollution is not at its highest. The public health significance of smoke, dust, gas, pollen, and microorganisms in the air are with a range of adverse health effects. These diseases spread and cause new disease to originate. Exposure to common urban air link to a wide range of adverse health outcomes, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, asthma exacerbation, reduced lung function and premature death.

Global warming is correlated with hot, humid days that can activate asthma symptoms. For patients with chronic lung diseases the onset of an intense heat wave can lead to death. “A study of New York City summers from 1991 to 2004 found that each 1°C above an empirically derived temperature-health effect threshold for the population resulted in a 2.7% to 3.1% increase in same-day hospitalizations for respiratory diseases,” (Bernsetein and Rice pg 3). The elderly with respiratory diseases and people living in urban areas due to amplification of temperature rises are the most prone to the effects of heat waves. (Another result of increase in temperature is the increased likelihood of forest fires releasing particulate matter (PM) and carcinogens, which have also been, linked to increased likelihood of asthma symptoms and hospital visits. PM can carry absorbed toxic compounds deep inside the lung do to their size to weight ratio. The majority of PM in the atmosphere comes from desertification and droughts and these natural events are likely to increase as a result of global warming. Even individuals with healthy functioning lungs were shown to have decreases lung function after exposure to PM and carcinogens. People with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease are effected most by air pollution because sometimes the pollution can lead to

The study was done to women that lived in suburban areas and encountered vehicle fumes every day. While being exposed to moderate, steady amounts of CO during pregnancy, a positive correlation was made between exposure and children with cancer at an odds ratio of 5.6 while 83% of the births occurred in urban areas (Heck, 2013). A test was done in South Korea to determine how exposure to PM and NO2 affected the development skills of the children at 6, 12, and 24 months of age. More specifically it measured effects on the central nervous system, cardiovascular, and pulmonary system. Air quality monitor stations measured the air pollution daily at where they lived and a neurodevelopment test was done to see how they were maturing. PM and NO2 had significant adverse effects on the children’s psychomotor developmental index and mental development index at 6 months of age (Kim, 2014). The cause of low birth weight, small for gestational age, and preterm birth are from the pollutants acting on the placenta functions and hormones. During the last trimester of pregnancy is when PM starts damaging the mitochondrial DNA. There was less measured mtDNA when the mother was exposed to PM late in pregnancy. Exposure during the first trimester leads to less DNA methylation. Another reason for these birth defects is the effect is has on blood transfer to the fetus. Preterm birth happens because particulate matter

Air pollutants have been associated with a wide variety of health impacts in children. “Our estimates confirm that air pollution has a significant effect on infant mortality even at the relatively low levels of pollution experienced in recent years, and suggest that previous studies may have overlooked a potentially important role for CO. In particular, we estimate that the reductions in CO that occurred over the 1990s saved approximately 1000 infant lives in California” (Neidell, 1008). Children that participate in physical activity that are outdoors, when pollution levels are high, will experience higher exposures than adults. In public schools, children go outside frequently. For example, they have recess and have to walk for one building to another, which gives the children exposure to the air pollutants. “Children also spend more time outdoors than adults do, increasing their total exposure” (Currie, 683). Children’s that are exposed to air pollution is a huge concern because their immune system and lungs are not fully developed. Protecting children’s health is essential, especially to a parent. This is why parents keep their children inside, causing them to miss

In the United States alone, nearly 150 million people live in areas that don’t meet federal air quality standards. For many years, air pollution has been on the rise but more recently it’s been proved how pollution poses a greater danger to both the environment and the everyday individual. Its everlasting effects on the world, such as global warming and its depletion of the ozone layer, are going to play a huge role in the years to come. Consequently, there has been an increase in death rates from various illnesses caused by air pollution, varying from breathing problems to even worse, lung cancer. While these effects may go unnoticed, they are still an enormous issue at hand and are triggering more complications within our society. Though

I am pursing my research in an environmental toxicology lab because I would like to understand the effect of air pollution have on human and animal cardiovascular health. Growing as a child in Taiwan, I remember vividly that I always had to wear masks to prevent allergies such as watery eyes, nasal congestion, and running nose that were caused by the dusty and air pollution in the city whenever I went into the city. I was not the only one who was affected by the quality of air in the city. My younger brother also has trouble with the dusty city air. He had an environmental triggered asthma and had to use rescue bronchodilator inhalers to relieve his symptoms. Due to lack of government regulation in air quality and urban greenery establishment

Breathing disorders have been well studied for several decades and findings have directly linked outdoor air pollution to asthma specifically. In 2014 Michael Guarnieri published an article that defined the specific mechanisms, particulate matter, gasses and TRAP entitled “Outdoor air pollution and asthma.” (Guarnieri & Balmes, 2014, para. 1)

Air pollution is the result of many human activities- burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry all contribute to polluting the air we breathe. Human actions are damaging the Earth’s atmosphere; but pollution not only harms the environment, it also damages our health. According to the World Health Organization, 1.2 million deaths each year are caused by air pollution. Because of the risks associated with air pollution, we should all be aware of the pollutants and polluters in our communities.

Many epidemiologic studies have found an association between ambient air pollution and lung cancer. This evidence lead the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to report air pollution as a category 1 or definite cause of cancer. The IARC reviewed over 1000 studies from five continents and covering many different scientific fields. They concluded that air pollution is linked to increased cancer incidence, with lung cancer being the most prevalent (Pope, 2013).

The figure above shows how air pollution affects the human body from cardiovascular damage to respiratory diseases, fatigue, headaches, anxiety, irritation of eyes, nose and throat, damage to reproductive organs, harm to liver, spleen and blood and lastly the nervous system ( ). In a