In recent months, air pollution has been more in the media focus although it has been around for decades. While quarantine and mass confinement helped reduce the potency of air pollution, it remains one of the biggest threats to human health.
What is air pollution?
It is estimated that fresh air contains 10 elements: Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Carbon dioxide, Neon, Helium, Methane (CH4), Krypton, Hydrogen, and Xenon. The air gets contaminated when other substances are introduced or when there’s an imbalance in the concentrations of the 10 mentioned elements.
The polluted atmosphere can contain particles, gases, or both from natural causes or man-induced causes. When talking about air pollution, it is split into two types: indoor and outdoor. Outdoor air Pollution can stem from:
— Industrial processes (i.e. fumes),
— Transportation (i.e. methane)
— Agriculture (i.e. nitrogen-rich fertilizers and animal waste) Etc.
Indoor air pollution is caused by:
— Residential and small-scale commercial combustion (i.e. radiators)
— Building materials
— Tobacco smoke/wood-burning stoves Etc.
Air Pollutants
Key pollutants that have major harmful causes on the body are nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and Particulate Matter (PM). They make up a good portion of urban air pollution. Fuel combustion is the main contributor to both these contaminants. Other air pollutants include:
— Carbon monoxide (CO)
— Ozone (O3)
— Ammonia (NH3)
— Sulfur dioxide (SO2)
PM is usually divided into PM10 (particles with diameters equal or inferior to 10 micrometers) and PM2.5 (particles of 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller). Out of the two, PM2.5 — otherwise known as fine particles —poses a bigger threat to our health (not to minimize the dangers of PM10).
Why the kerfuffle around PM2.5? To put dimensions into perspective, human hairs vary in width within an interval of 17 micrometers to 181 micrometers. In other words, these fine particles can easily slip up into our respiratory and cardiovascular system, causing complications as they accumulate over time.
Effects of air pollution on the body
Long-term exposure to air pollution causes up to 36,000 deaths per year in the UK, making it the number one environmental threat. With our second year into the pandemic, the combination of air pollution and COVID-19 has been reported to be deadly serious.
Researchers from Harvard University took a look at the most polluted areas in the US and found a correlation between the rate of pollution and the death toll caused by COVID-19. In a separate study, the same pattern was seen in Italy. In fact, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna (two Italian regions) had a 12% fatality rate. The rest of Italy had only a 4.5% fatality rate. Public Health England also found similar results in a study they conducted back in August 2020.
It makes sense. Air pollutants cause inflammation (a protective response against harmful substances/organisms like toxins, bacteria, viruses, etc.), which taxes the immune system. Coupled with COVID-19, the body may not be able to defend itself; therefore, an infection with sars-cov-2 can result in severe symptoms or worse.
Air pollution is a culprit in causing asthma, stroke, pregnancy loss, loss of cognitive functions, and even cancer.
Looking at the statistics, miscarriages make up between 1-2 out of 10 pregnancies. It can be considered a high percentage after taking into account the technological advancement in health care.
It is also an indication of how fragile our bodies can be when dealing with unhealthy substances like drugs, nicotine, high-carb/high-fat foods, and air pollutants.
Research has shown that air pollution is linked to premature birth, low birth weight, and even pregnancy loss (miscarriage and stillbirth).
UNICEF released a study declaring that almost 17 million babies (children under the age of one) live in some of the most severely affected regions of the world, where outdoor air pollution is at least six times higher than international limits. Despite the fact that 12 million-ish of these babies are from South Asia, the risk is universal.
How does this happen? Airborne particles have been found to be traveling down the bloodstream and into the placenta causing dysfunctions.
Furthermore, continuous exposure to high-pollution levels can cause cognitive impairments equivalent to a loss of a whole year of education. This IQ drop is even more critical to the elderly (people 64 years old and above).
Unfortunately, according to a large body of research, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds are the ones at higher risk than others.
What to do?
HEPA (High-efficiency particulate air) filters clean the air by filtering out microscopic contaminants. In other words, you benefit from an increased indoor air quality, which is good for allergies, asthma, and people who want to live in a cleaner environment.
While HAPA filters cannot kill viruses, they do contain them within the filter.
UVC light is potent when it comes to neutralizing bacteria and viruses by messing up their genome (DNA or RNA). With their genome impaired, the bacteria/viruses are inactivated and thus, no longer a health threat.
COVID-19 belongs to the family of coronaviruses; therefore, it shares a few genetic and structural similarities with the other viruses in the family. Early research on some coronaviruses figured out the specific configuration of UVC and dosage needed to neutralize these viruses.
According to the International UltraViolet Association: “We know the dosage values for comparable viruses in the same SARS virus family are 10-20 mJ/cm2 using direct UVC light at a wavelength of 254 nm; this dosage will achieve 99.9% disinfection (i.e., inactivation) under controlled lab conditions. In real-life, the virus is often hidden or shaded from direct UVC light, reducing UVC’s effectiveness. To compensate, researchers are applying dosages of 1,000 – 3,000 mJ/cm2 to ensure 99.9% deactivation, the current CDC disinfection goal”.
The toll of air pollution can be felt throughout most industries and sectors, it is something that impacts most if not all of us all in one way or another. As technology and knowledge improves, we have a responsibility to apply it in constructive ways to help create a safer future for all.
