Air Pollution Impacts on Health: The Respiratory System

The respiratory system is the system that deals with breathing. The primary function of the respiratory system is to supply the blood with oxygen in order for the blood to deliver oxygen to all parts of the body. When we breathe, the body takes in the oxygen it needs by inhaling and removes the carbon dioxide it does not need through exhaling. This exchange of gases is the respiratory system's means of getting oxygen to the blood.

Respiration is achieved through the mouth, nose, trachea, lungs and diaphragm. Oxygen enters as the body breathes in the air, which is sucked through the nose of mouth and down through the trachea (windpipe). The trachea is a tube shaped by rings of cartilage, which enters the chest cavity. In the chest cavity, the trachea splits into two smaller tubes called bronchi. These carry air into each lung. Inside the lung, the tubes divide into smaller and smaller tubes called bronchioles. At the end of each of these tubes are small air balloons called alveoli. The average adult's lungs contain about 600 million of these spongy, air filled sacs that are surrounded by capillaries. Capillaries are small blood vessels with thin walls. The walls are so thin and close to each other that air easily seeps through. The inhaled oxygen passes into the alveoli and then diffuses through the capillaries into the arterial blood. Meanwhile, the waste-rich blood from the veins releases its carbon dioxide into the alveoli. The carbon dioxide follows the same path out of the lungs when you exhale.

The diaphragm is the muscle that controls the breathing process and its job is to help pump the carbon dioxide out of the lungs and pull the oxygen into the lungs. The diaphragm is a sheet of muscles that lies across the bottom of the chest cavity. As the diaphragm contracts ad relaxes, breathing takes place. When the diaphragm relaxes, carbon dioxide is pumped out of the lungs.

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