Urban air pollution equates to smoking a resident's pack of cigarettes a day

According to a new scientific study, the impact of air pollution on city dwellers is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for 29 years. The study showed that air pollution affects not only the lungs but also the rest of the body.

The study found that 7,000 adults living in different cities in the United States had been exposed to ground-level ozone gas. She discovered that city dwellers were exposed to between 10 and 25 parts per billion of ozone, knowing that three parts per billion of ozone equivalent to smoking an extra pack of cigarettes a day.

Thus, even the passage from an area polluted by air to a less polluted city still presents a risk of respiratory diseases such as emphysema, a disease commonly associated with smoking.

The World Health Organization (WHO) now describes urban pollution levels as a "public health emergency" because 91% of us live in areas where air pollution exceeds the limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO.

About 55% of the world's population now lives in urban areas. This figure is expected to reach 68% by 2050, according to UN estimates.

The problem is expected to affect a greater number of people because of the serious consequences of urban life on physical and mental health, both today and in the future.

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Mental Health

The results of a combined analysis of 20 articles over the last 35 years suggest that mental disorders are much more common among urban dwellers. Specifically, city dwellers suffer from mood disorders and anxiety at a much higher rate.

Compared to those who live near water, the more people see 10% more water, the lower their Kessler stress index is down by a third.

The researchers think that "increasing from 20 to 30% what you see from the blue space can make it go from the voltage level to the lowest level".

Education

Surprisingly, living in cities can make the individual less intelligent. Studies have shown that students do less well on exams on days when the pollution rate is higher.

A study conducted in Israel found that a high level of air pollution by fine particles on exam day in high school had a negative impact on people 's wages after graduation.

Weight

Studies have also established a link between air pollution and obesity. Although researchers do not know exactly what is happening, pollution is thought to alter the metabolism in the body, which can be caused by inflammation of the lungs caused by contaminated particles, causing the body to secrete hormones. that reduce the effectiveness of insulin and increase blood sugar levels. .

While the body generally uses this method to gain enough instant energy to cope with a risk, a continuous stimulation of the body in this way, due to air pollution, can in the long run affect the way in which sugar is represented, a first step towards diabetes.

Massive studies, such as a Canadian study involving 62,000 people, can prove the result of this research, which concluded that the risk of diabetes increases by 11% for 10 micrograms of fine particles per cubic meter of air.

How to save our cities from this situation?

But the addition of green spaces in cities greatly improves the situation, especially for children of lower social and economic classes, and the availability of spaces to distance oneself from the city. The agitation of the city would help to improve the mental and psychological state of the individuals.

In Beijing, a candidate seven meters tall would be able to purify the air in an area near a football field. The filter looks like a giant bee nest and absorbs harmful particles from the air.

In Mexico City, a supercomputer has been installed next to the Manuel Gia Gonzalez Hospital, which serves as a candidate for extracting air pollutants. Its designers say that it can purify the air of 1,000 cars a day.

You can read the original topic on BBC Future