DAILY TRIFECTA: It Seems Like Air Pollution Might Be A Problem

There's no alternative to breathing

TITLE:  India Can Save up to $1.3 Trillion in Health Benefits by 2030 by Meeting Air Quality Standards, Say Experts
https://www.newsclick.in/india-can-save-13-trillion-health-benefits-2030-meeting-air-quality-standards-say-experts

EXCERPTS: Toxic air in South Asia has risen more than 50% since the start of this century. This has affected gross domestic product in the region and shortened the average lifespan in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan by five years, versus four months for the average American, said leading regional and international scientists at an even held in Kathmandu, Nepal.

According to experts , populations across the region are exposed to polluted air, exposure and vulnerability are greatest among those living in poverty – including those working long hours outdoors, communities living close to landfills or factories, or families unable to afford clean alternatives to solid fuels for cooking, lighting, or heating.

“The moral and social case for action on clean air has long been clear, but the economic cost of this public health crisis is perhaps evenly striking,” Michal Krzyzanowski, visiting Professor at Imperial College London, said at a launch of initiative of the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) that has partnered with US-based Health Effects Institute (HEI), to drive action that tackles hazardous air pollution.

“Studies in Europe find that for every euro invested in improving air quality, economies get €10 back in productivity and health”, he said, as per an ICIMOD release issued after the event.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain and Himalayan Foothills (IGP-HF) region airshed includes some of the world’s most polluted countries. “Air pollution costs the global economy $8 trillion a year, and in South Asia wipes out more than 10% of gross domestic product per annum,” said Izabella Koziell, Deputy Director General of ICIMOD, at the event.

She said, “The longer-term health and productivity costs, and the fall-out from the temperature rises that air pollution accelerates, will be higher still. These are costs that low- and middle-income countries in this region can ill afford. Stakeholders from across the region simply have to come together to shift the dial on dirty air.”

The experts opined that India alone could save up to $1.3trillion in health benefits by 2030 by meeting air quality standards. Pakistan is estimated to lose $1 billion a year in environmental degradation chiefly due to air pollution.

TITLE: Air pollution is causing epigenetic changes in Bogotá residents
https://english.elpais.com/health/2024-08-13/air-pollution-is-causing-epigenetic-changes-in-bogota-residents.html

EXCERPT: The extremely high air pollution in some areas of Bogotá is changing the respiratory system of residents of the Colombian capital. The permanent exposure to small harmful particles suffered by the inhabitants of localities such as Kennedy or Tunjuelito has caused significant alterations to their DNA, changes that increase the risk of suffering from respiratory diseases. These are two of the main findings of a study carried out by the Institute of Human Genetics of the Faculty of Medicine of the Pontifical Javierian University, in alliance with the San Ignacio University Hospital, the National University and the Francisco José de Caldas District University.

The research determined that healthy people who live or work in places with the highest levels of pollution, such as the Carvajal-Sevillana area, located between the Autopista Sur and Avenida Boyacá, have epigenetic changes very similar to those seen in a person diagnosed with severe asthma. Epigenetics is the study of the relationship between the environment and the expression of human DNA, and includes factors such as diet, exercise, medication use, and exposure to chemicals.

Professor Adriana Rojas Moreno, from the Javeriana Institute of Human Genetics and one of the leaders of the work, explains that these changes are not in the DNA sequence, but in the way it functions and how it is expressed. “We analyzed whether a gene behaves differently due to permanent exposure to air pollution,” Rojas tells EL PAÍS. “We concluded that particulate matter and environmental pollution are definitely generating epigenetic changes, which in the long term can lead to an exacerbated allergic response and consequently problems such as acute rhinitis, diseases such as COPD [Chronic Inflammatory Pulmonary Disease], or asthma.”

TITLE: Air pollution can cause mood swings, in different ways for different people: Study
https://www.wkrn.com/news/air-pollution-can-cause-mood-swings-in-different-ways-for-different-people-study/

EXCERPT: Inhalation of airborne contaminants can cause day-to-day disruptions in “affect,” or mood — increasing long-term risk of adverse mental health outcomes and also reducing climate action, according to the study, published Wednesday in PLoS ONE.

Humans’ sensitivities to environmental hazards, including the impacts on their moods, play a critical role in their overall vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, noted the authors, led by researchers at Stanford University.

As climate-related physical and mental health threats continue to surge worldwide, the researchers sought to measure the ways in which pollution-related mood swings impact overall vulnerability.

Building on known links between air pollution and mental health issues, the authors proposed what they call the “affective sensitivity to air pollution” construct, informed by robust and long-term datasets.

Specifically, they applied statistical models to intensive, repeated measures of mood obtained from 150 U.S. individuals for more than a year.

The researchers then evaluated two branches of the “affective state” of these participants: arousal, the level of physiological activation, and valence, the positive or negative nature of their mood.

Ultimately, the authors found that the affect arousal of those included in the study trended lower than usual on days with excess air pollution. However, they also identified substantial differences among the individual participants.

The researchers additionally determined that affective sensitivity could in part explain one of the mechanisms by which air pollution exposure raises longer-term risk of anxiety and depression.

Meanwhile, they also observed that when air pollution blunts an individual’s mood, that impact could be associated with a lack of climate action.

With these results in mind, the authors stressed a need to incorporate the pollution-mood connection into climate adaptation planning.