Air Pollution Causes Millions of Emergency Visits for Asthma Attacks Around the World

Scientists have long known that breathing stale air by emissions from cars and other pollutants can trigger asthma attacks. However, this new study is the first to quantify the impact of air pollution on asthma cases worldwide.

"Millions of people around the world need to go to emergency rooms every year to have an asthma attack because they breathe dirty air," said Susan C. Anenberg, Ph.D. , MS, lead author of the study and associate professor in environment and environment. Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University (Milken Institute SPH). "Our findings suggest that policies to clean the air can reduce the global burden of asthma and improve respiratory health worldwide."

Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in the world and affects approximately 358 million people. The new results, published in the journal Environmental Health Outlook, suggests that car emissions and other types of pollution could be a major source of severe asthma attacks.

Anenberg and her team first reviewed emergency room visits for asthma in 54 countries and Hong Kong, then combined this information with epidemiological exposure-response relationships and levels. of global pollution derived from satellites orbiting the earth.

New research suggests that:

• Ozone, a pollutant generated when cars, power plants and other types of emissions interact with sunlight, can be at the origin of nine to 23 million hits annuals in emergency rooms for asthma (8 to 20% of total asthma visits worldwide).
• Five to ten million visits each year to emergency rooms for asthma (ie 4 to 9% of total asthma visits worldwide) were related to fine, small particles pollution particles that can lodge deep in the airways of the lungs.
• About half of the asthma emergency visits attributed to polluted air would have occurred in countries in South and East Asia, including India and China.
• Although the air in the United States is relatively clean compared to the countries of South and East Asia, ozone and particulate matter could represent 8 to 21% and 3. at 11% of asthma visits in the United States, respectively.

To estimate overall pollution levels for this study, researchers used atmospheric models, soil monitoring monitors and satellites equipped with remote sensing devices.

"The interest in using satellites is that we have been able to obtain a consistent measure of air pollution concentrations worldwide," said Daven Henze, senior project researcher and associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. "This information has allowed us to link the burden of asthma to air pollution, even in areas of the world where ambient air quality measurements have not been made. not available. "

Countries like India and China could be more affected by the burden of asthma because they have a large population and have fewer restrictions on factories producing smoke and other sources of pollution, which can lead to breathing difficulties, said the authors.

About 95% of the world's population lives in places where the air is unhealthy. Previously, the global burden of disease study aimed to quantify the effects of air pollution on heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer and lower respiratory tract infections – finding that fine and Ozone was associated with 4.1 million and 230,000 premature deaths, respectively.

"We know that air pollution is the biggest risk factor for environmental health globally," said Anenberg. "Our results show that the number of public health impacts resulting from dirty air breathing is even greater – and includes millions of asthma attacks each year."

To reduce the global burden caused by asthma, Anenberg suggests that policy makers aggressively attack known sources of pollution such as ozone, fine particles, and carbon dioxide. nitrogen. According to her, policies that result in cleaner air could not only reduce the burden of asthma, but also other health problems.

One way to quickly reduce pollutants would be to target emissions from cars, especially in larger cities. Such policies would not only help people with asthma and other respiratory diseases, but would help everyone breathe easier, she said.

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Ambient particles related to emergency care of asthma

More information:
"Estimating the global burden of PM2.5 ambient particulate matter, ozone and NO2 on the incidence of asthma and emergency room visits", was published in line on October 24 in the newspaper Environmental Health Outlook.