Even low levels of air pollution can be deadly

Physicians are studying the impact of air pollution on the elderly

Of course, increasing air pollution in most countries has a negative impact on the health of people living there. Researchers now found that the impact of polluted air has a massive impact on the mortality of the elderly population. Older adults tend to die on days when air pollution is rising, even if pollutant levels are still below the threshold that is actually considered safe, the researchers report.

The researchers of the internationally recognized Harvard T.H. Boston's Chan School of Public Health found that older people die more frequently on days of high levels of air pollution. This effect can be observed even if the actually safe limit values ​​of the pollutant values ​​are not exceeded. The physicians published the results of their study in the English-language journal "JAMA".

Air pollution seems to have a particularly negative impact on our older citizens. Even if the burden is below the actually safe threshold, many older people die of their consequences. (Image: Gina Sanders / fotolia.com)

Physicians analyze 22 million deaths

The experts examined about 22 million deaths for their study. So they wanted to determine whether there is a connection between deaths and fluctuations in daily ozone concentrations. Most deaths occurred on days when ozone and PM2.5 particulate levels were below the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limits.

Negative effects do not only take place in cities

Previous studies have already linked air pollution to an increased risk of chronic health problems and premature death. However, these studies focused on cities, explains author Dr. Joel Schwartz of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The doctors wanted to find out if this effect also occurs in small towns, villages and rural areas. The results of the investigation clearly showed that air pollution also has the same impact in such areas, not only in the big cities.

How did the air pollution affect us??

The study focused on deaths between the year 2000 and the year 2012. The physicians compared satellite data with daily PM 2.5 and ozone levels from the days that humans died in certain areas to the air quality values ​​on another day within one or two Weeks after each death. For example, scientists found that about 95 percent of deaths occurred on days when PM levels were below EPA standards. For 91 percent of the days studied, ozone levels were below 60 ppb and 93 percent of deaths occurred on these days, the researchers say.

Even if air quality was still in line with EPA standards, any increase in PM2.5 levels by 10 μg / m3 per day was associated with an increase of 1.42 deaths per day per million people, the researchers say. Each 10 ppb increase in daily ozone levels was also associated with 0.66 more deaths per million people. The increased risk of death associated with peak daily levels of PM2.5 and ozone persisted even though the researchers limited their analysis to days when air quality was in line with EPA standards.

Older and sick people are particularly threatened

Inhalation of contaminated air can endanger the respiratory tract and cause functional impairment, similar to asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In children or adolescents, these so-called exacerbations may not have serious consequences, but they can even lead to death in the elderly and the very sick who already have difficulty breathing.

People in rural areas are also at risk

Apart from a lack of data on young people, another limitation of the study is the lack of data on long-term exposure to air pollution, say the authors. However, people should be aware of the health effects of air pollution, even if they do not live in urban areas where traffic and smog are a known health risk, experts suggest. Even if people live in rural areas with relatively low levels of air pollution, health problems can occur on certain days of higher levels of air pollution due to poor weather conditions. Humans can also experience higher exposures when spending time near roads or diesel powered equipment. (As)