Can air pollution cause inflammation? Scientists are starting to unravel the connection.

Flames and smoke billow from the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining Complex in Philadelphia in 2019. Scientists are beginning to understand how breathing air filled with pollution impairs the immune system’s ability to regulate inflammation.Air quality has long been a concern in South Philadelphia, where an oil refinery operated for more than 150 years before an explosion set it on fire

Living with pollution can make people more vulnerable to infectious diseases, possibly including COVID-19. Multiple studies since 2020 have pointed to potentially higher rates of infection, complications and death from COVID in places with higher levels of air pollution, even when it was temporary.

A firefighter walks a fireline clearing unburned brush to prevent embers from further spreading the 2021 Dixie Fire in California. Particulates from wildfires causes an array of health problems to those who live nearby.

Particles of varying sizes and gases like ozone each enter and move through the bodies in different ways, Hernandez and colleagues found in a 2021 study. But once any of these substances get inside the respiratory tract, blood, and other organs, effects become layered and interrelated. Both small and large particles, for example, can damage and kill cells in the lungs via inflammatory processes, Hernandez has found in his studies with animals and with cells in lab experiments.

Research Clougherty and colleagues conducted more than 15 years ago with hundreds of children in Boston found that adversity magnifies a documented link between traffic-related air pollution and.

Air pollution is a global problem, and we all share the same air, Hernandez says. By documenting the effects of the problem, he hopes that policymakers everywhere will take notice of how air pollution is affecting inflammation, health, and life on our planet. “The best path is the more difficult one—to show the policymakers the consequences of this pollution,” he says, “not only for human health but the health of the environment and the health of the animals.

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