How invisible pollution may be damaging your health

A NEW report revealed that most of the world has polluted air, with only 17% of cities globally meeting the World Health Organization's air quality guidelines.

- BY CAMILLA FOSTER

IQAir, a Switzerland-based air quality monitoring platform, looked at data from 40,000 sites across 138 countries, and identified Chad, Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India as having the most polluted air.

Experts suggest that the actual levels of air pollution may be even higher, as many regions lack the necessary monitoring needed to provide more accurate data.

But how exactly does air pollution affect our health?

LUNGS

"Air pollution has both immediate and long-term impacts on health, causing inflammation and irritation of the airways, which can lead to symptoms like coughing and breathing difficulties," explains Jonathan Blades, head of policy at Asthma + Lung UK.

"Air pollution can also worsen symptoms for the millions of people living with lung conditions, triggering asthma attacks or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) flare-ups, sometimes resulting in hospitalisation."

The lungs of younger people are particularly vulnerable.

"Harmful air pollution particles can penetrate deeply into the lungs of children, and these deeply embedded toxins can stunt lung growth," explains Jonathan. "They also breathe faster, which means they take in more polluted air.

"Longer-term, being exposed to pollution as a child increases the risk of developing asthma and COPD as an adult, meaning the effects can take many years to fully manifest themselves."