The Harmful Effects of Poor Air Quality to Our Health

Air pollution is quite common due to today’s easy and advanced lifestyle. Since most of us are now highly used to living our lives with the help of the advanced technologies and unhealthy lifestyles we’ve adopted; we’re more likely to be affected by the negative impacts of dirty air too. Now we all know how air pollution has become an ordinary addition in our Earth’s atmosphere, due to the unhealthy gases that are produced with the advanced technologies we use every day.

But since we’re so used to living around such an atmosphere and making use of such harmful gases, air pollution is hardly something most of us are concerned about. As a matter of fact, even when we aren’t concerned about the air pollution, it’s still causing us various health issues. From as small as feeling irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, to as huge as facing cardiovascular diseases; air pollution does all that, and much more to our health. However, most of the people today are still unaware of the harmful effects that air pollution or poor air quality causes to our health. Because there are many ways that poor quality air affects our health, it’s hard to figure out the most harmful ones. That is why, to help you out in understanding, we’ve aligned some of the most major harmful effects that poor air quality causes to our health.

So without further ado, let’s discuss them below.

Respiratory Issues

Whether you’re at home or outdoors, when poor quality air goes inside your body, it affects your lungs causing breathing issues. Further, this breathing issue can lead to various respiratory issues as a result of the intake of air pollution. Usually, people having breathing issues or even the slightest respiratory issues face such health problems, in comparison to those who don’t have any such respiratory issues already. That is why, in terms of breathing healthy, it is highly important for people already having respiratory issues to breathe in better quality air. Now you might not be able to change the outdoor air quality for yourself, but there are always suitable options that you can read more about, and make use of to avail a healthier air quality inside your home. This way, one can save themselves from the harmful threat this air pollution can cause on their breathing and avoid advanced respiratory issues.

Mental Health Issues

Air pollution can be a great source of fueling psychological distress for us. Often we consider mental stress to be quite a common issue, faced by many today. But, most of the time it’s due to the intake of polluted air, which increases the rate of distress for many people. As a result, people who live in places where air pollution is higher, they face more mental health issues than others. Similar to this, studies show that almost 39 percent of white women face mental distress issues, which is a result of living in an environment having poor air quality.

Cardiovascular Diseases

Although cardiovascular diseases and strokes are mainly caused due to unhealthy living, there are one too many other reasons for it too. Studies have shown poor air quality to be one of the highest factors that cause cardiovascular diseases and death in many people. That’s simply because inhaling polluted air can cause heart inflammation and lead to various cardiovascular diseases. Not just that, but inhaling dirty air also leads to increased risk of death due to heart diseases in many people. That is why, according to the studies, air pollution is considered to cause equally as many deaths due to heart diseases as alcohol, exercise, and coffee do.

Skin Damage

Ever notice some itchy feeling on your skin when you go outdoors? That’s surely one of the skin damage that poor air quality or air pollution causes on our health. Although, that’s not all the damages that poor air quality can cause on your skin. Instead, increased contact with air pollution on a day-to-day basis can lead to various skin damages and problems for anyone having sensitive skin. As a result, people with sensitive skin can also lead to various skin diseases due to increased exposure to air pollution.

Now that you’re aware of the health issues that are a threat to us due to air pollution or poor air quality, it’s easier to analyze how our normal lifestyles are not healthy in every way. That’s why, it’s important to understand how we can avoid so much exposure to air pollution in our day-to-day lifestyles, and lead healthier lives.