Air Pollution Impacts on Health: People

Outdoor air pollution impacts the respiratory health of everyone, regardless of age and health status. It affects our immune systems, our airways and lungs by reducing the amount of oxygen we take into the body. Breathing is inevitable, so unfortunately, there is no way of getting around breathing bad air. In the video, you saw how bad the air quality was in Houston, Texas. Now, think about all that bad air inside your lungs! Yuck!

So what happens when you breathe in air pollution? Breathing polluted air can cause symptoms that range from mild irritation to the nose, eyes, and throat, to a reduction in your ability to do exercise outdoors. You are also at higher risk of having a respiratory infection when you breathe in air pollution.

Children, the elderly and people with asthma are impacted the most by air pollution. Some of the ways people are directly affected by high levels of ground-level ozone are listed below. Click on the title to lead you to more information.

Asthma
When there are high levels of air pollution, specifically ozone, people with asthma are more prone to asthma attacks that require a doctor's attention or they may need to use asthma medication more often. This happens because ozone irritates the airway and also makes people more sensitive to allergens, a common trigger for asthma attacks.

In January 2002, for the first time, researchers successfully proved that children who breathe heavily polluted air are much more likely to develop asthma, according to a decade long study. This study provides the strongest evidence yet that smog not only aggravates existing childhood asthma but also may actually be one of the causes of this disease, which has reached epidemic proportions among American youth.

Respiratory System Irritation
After exposure to ozone at higher concentrations, you may begin to experience an irritation in your throat and /or experience an uncomfortable sensation in your chest. Ozone can irritate your respiratory system and cause you to start coughing.

Reduction of Lung Function
When ozone levels are high, it can become more difficult to breathe deeply and vigorously than on a normal day when air pollution levels are not at an unhealthy level. If this happens, you may start to become uncomfortable breathing and begin to notice you are taking more rapid and shallow breaths, especially if you are exercising or working outdoors.

Aggravation of Chronic Lung Diseases
Ozone may aggravate chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis and reduce the immune system's ability to fight off bacterial infections in the respiratory system.

Permanent Lung Damage
Permanent lung damage can occur to children's developing lungs when they are continuously exposed to ozone. Such damage could lead to reduced lung function in adulthood. In adults, especially the elderly, continuous ozone exposure can accelerate the natural decline in lung function that already occurs in the natural process of aging.