Air is the source of life for every carbon-based lifeform on Earth. As you breathe in air, your body uses the gases, such as oxygen, for cell function and eventually energy. But what if something stops this from happening properly? In short, the health of your breathing gets worse, and you can experience some major problems, such as worsening conditions and inflammation.
Reduced Lung Function
One of the worst things that can happen when breathing in bad air from the city is reduced lung function. This means your lungs won’t work properly, and it can be horrible. The first thing that happens is it gets harder to breathe, without straining or pain, and this is for adults. Exposure at a young age can cause developmental problems in children that lead to lung cancer because of tiny particles that build up in the lungs and very harmful gases such as nitrous oxide (NO2).
Making Existing Conditions Worse
There are some health conditions that are a nightmare to live with, such as asthma and COPD. When these flare up, there’s no sunshine and rainbows, even in spring when everyone else gets to enjoy themselves. Poor urban air from car pollution, HVAC, and local manufacturing can make your life very uncomfortable to bear. You will experience some of these medical issues more often, and you might find you have to rely on devices like inhalers just to go to the store.
The Health of Your Breathing and Allergies
Indoor air pollution is one of the worst hidden health threats you should be aware of. One of the reasons is that poor-quality air can make allergies much worse. The World Allergy Organization estimates that allergies affect up to 40% of the world’s population. And if your indoor and outdoor air is polluted, there’s a good chance you aren’t going to have a good time! On a more serious note, allergies are, of course, deadly if they get too bad and aren’t managed properly.
Inflammation and Irritation
In dense urban areas, there are many dangerous toxins in the air. Commonly, you might find nitrous oxide (NO2)2 and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Both of these come from things like vehicles, power plants, and factories. In large enough doses, they can cause irritation and inflammation that causes nasty effects like coughing, a hard time breathing, and more mucus than usual. These can be hard to live with because of pain, but also the potential embarrassment.
Long-Term Exposure Can Cause Disease
You might not even feel any effects when you live in an urban area. But breathing in all that nasty gunk builds up over time. It can take decades to even show symptoms, but the diseases are already there in most cases. Some of the worst you can get include lung cancer, as mentioned earlier. However, other common pollution-based illnesses include bronchitis, COPD, and even pneumonia, which has a very high chance of killing you depending on your age.
Summary
Lungs that don’t work that well are one way that polluted urban air can affect the health of your breathing. Bad air can also make existing allergies like asthma a lot worse. However, it’s the long-term problems that are scary, such as bronchitis, COPD, and pneumonia (lung infection).
