Researchers from multiple universities studied people in the U.K. who were part of the U.K. Biobank. They found that people who moved from low air pollution areas to medium or high air pollution areas, or from medium air pollution areas to high air pollution areas, experienced increased disease in all 14 disease categories that they studied. Some kinds of air pollution also caused increased death.
The kinds of air pollution that increased disease were: PM2.5 (fine particle pollution), PM10 (coarse particle pollution), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), NOx (mixed nitrogen oxides including NO2), and SO2 (sulfur dioxide). All of the different kinds of pollution caused increased risk of all 14 kinds of diseases, and NO2 and NOx also increased risk of death.
The 14 kinds of diseases they studied were: infection, blood diseases, endocrine diseases, mental and behavioral disorders, nervous system diseases, ocular diseases, ear disorders, circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, skin diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, genitourinary diseases, and cancer. They looked at multiple diseases within each category. All 14 kinds of diseases increased when people moved to more polluted areas – all of them.
The researchers followed people for 12 years after they started the Biobank study, and looked at what happened when people moved while they were part of the study.
It is clear that all kinds of air pollution are harmful to our health. It’s why we say #HealthyAirIsHealthCare. It’s also clear that air pollution continues to have exposure disparities in groups that have been treated as minorities and others. The faster we shift to clean, renewable energy, the healthier we’ll be, and we will help reduce some health disparities.
Please let your elected leaders know that you care about clean energy, and please do all that you can financially afford to switch away from fossil or combustion fuel to solar, wind, or water produced energy.
Read the scientific study in Environmental Health Perspectives here.
10/17/2024 AKMB
