Air Pollution and Miscellaneous Health Consequences
Updated May, 2022
* Immune suppression, inflammatory bowel disease, bacterial and viral infections, lupus, juvenile arthritis, sleep apnea, and obesity are elevated in populations exposed to more air pollution.
*The severity, lethality, and transmissibility of COVID is increased by particulate air pollution.
*Air pollution can induce liver toxicity, accelerate liver inflammation and steastosis.
*Air pollution causes systemic oxidative stress, triggers the inflammatory chemical cascade, endothelial cell death, cytotoxicity, macrophage infiltration, and increases lipid deposition. Particulate matter penetrates intracellular structures. Air filtration leads to increased protein synthesis and enhanced mitochondrial efficiency, resulting in significant triggering of ATP synthesis and a reduction in oxidative damage.
*Air pollution accelerates the aging process.
*Air pollution increases infant mortality and SIDS.
* Wood smoke is uniquely toxic, the most toxic type of air pollution that most people are ever exposed to. Wildfire smoke causes dramatic increases in community death rates.
*Air pollution decreases kidney function.
*Osteoporosis is associated with air pollution.
*Pollution exposure in utero or in infancy increases the likelihood of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis decades later in adulthood.
*Lead exposure (common in urban air pollution) is associated with significant increased adult mortality primarily related to cardiovascular disease.
*Air pollution damages the skin and the cornea.
The video below is Dr. Moench on April 17, 2019 speaking about regional haze, a type of haze-inducing pollution that comes from our cars’ exhaust pipes or electric power plant smokestacks, and how it pollutes our air, obscures the beauty of our National Parks and must be addressed seriously. This was in response to when the Utah Air Quality Board considered the latest Regional Haze Rule. Utah needs a Regional Haze Rule with stronger, more effective proposed actions, but the proposed rule is little more than a do-nothing rehash of past failed rules.