health affect

Air pollution can affect our health in many ways with both short-term and long-term effects. Different groups of individuals are affected by air pollution in different ways. Some individuals are much more sensitive to pollutants than are others. Young children and elderly people often suffer more from the effects of air pollution. People with health problems such as asthma, heart and lung disease may also suffer more when the air is polluted. The extent to which an individual is harmed by air pollution usually depends on the total exposure to the damaging chemicals, i.e., the duration of exposure and the concentration of the chemicals must be taken into account.
Examples of short-term effects include irritation to the eyes, nose and throat, and upper respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. Other symptoms can include headaches, nausea, and allergic reactions. Short-term air pollution can aggravate the medical conditions of individuals with asthma and emphysema. In the great "Smog Disaster" in London in 1952, four thousand people died in a few days due to the high concentrations of pollution.
Long-term health effects can include chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys. Continual exposure to air pollution affects the lungs of growing children and may aggravate or complicate medical conditions in the elderly. It is estimated that half a million people die prematurely every year in the United States as a result of smoking cigarettes.
Research into the health effects of air pollution is ongoing. Medical conditions arising from air pollution can be very expensive. Healthcare costs, lost productivity in the workplace, and human welfare impacts cost billions of dollars each year.
Asthma and Upper Respiratory Illnesses

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that causes airways to tighten and narrow, causing difficulty in breathing. For the past 15 years, an epidemic of asthma has been occurring in the Canada and the United States. Although asthma has become a major public health problem affecting Canadians and Americans of all ages, races, and ethnic groups, children have been particularly severely affected. The epidemic is most severe among lower income and minority children.
Physicians don't know the main cause of asthma, but they do know that the tendency to develop asthma is often inherited. All children with asthma have airways that are overly sensitive, or hyper-reactive, to certain asthma triggers. Things that trigger asthma attacks (also known as "episodes", exacerbation's" or "flares") differ from person to person.
Some common triggers are exercise, allergies, viral infections, and smoke. The sensitive airway linings react to trigger exposure by becoming inflamed, swollen, and filled with mucus.
The muscles lining the swollen airways tighten and constrict, making them even more narrowed and obstructed. These reactions, in turn, can cause coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. The symptoms, frequency, severity and duration of an asthma episode also vary from child to child.

Common Asthma Triggers
Allergic
House dust mites
Mold or yeast spores
Pollen
Cat hair, saliva and urine
Dog hair and saliva
Cockroach particles
Aspirin or other non steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs
Metabisulfite, used as a preservative in many beverages and some foods
Non-allergic
Tobacco smoke
Smog
Natural gas, propane, or kerosene used as cooking fuel
Wood smoke
Coal smoke
Gas, wood, coal, and kerosene heating units its
Paint fumes
Viral respiratory infections
Exercise
Weather changes