Air Pollution Affects Longevity

Life expectancy in the United Kingdom is falling by almost 6 months due to air pollution from vehicles and power stations.

"It's a national scandal that the average life expectancy of people living in the UK is reduced by six months because of road traffic pollution," the Daily Express quoted MP Joan Walley, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, as saying.

Long-term Air Pollution Exposure 'ups Risk of Severe COPD'
Researchers in Denmark say that long-term exposure to low-level air pollution may increase the risk of severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Road vehicles produce a pollutant known as particulate matter (PM10) and the Government is currently missing targets to slash levels of this pollutant.

Although it has promised to meet the targets by next year, it is not clear how this would be done.

One idea is to spray roads so they attract and trap PM10. But campaigners argue it would be better to stop vehicles producing it in the first place.

Air Pollution Elevates Breast Cancer Risk in Women
Air pollution, which has already been linked to a range of health problems, may put women at risk of for another deadly disease.

Walley said: "Using dust suppressant sprays to damp down pollution on London's roads will help people in our capital city breathe easier, but it's only a temporary fix.

"We need to tackle the root cause of the air pollution problem and clean up our transport system."

Chidhood Asthma Symptoms Worsen With Air Pollution
The severity of asthma in children increases with a decreased function of a particular gene due to unclean air, state researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Numerous studies have shown that when levels of pollutants in the air rise, it causes a spike in deaths of people with lung and heart problems.

The news came as a separate study showed that second-hand smoke is still killing 600,000 people worldwide.

Air Pollution Link To Diabetes
US researchers have concluded there is a strong correlation between adult diabetes and air pollution. The link seems to persist even after adjustment for other risk factors like obesity and ethnicity.

The findings showed that one in 100 deaths is linked to passive smoking.

This claims more than 600,000 lives each year around the world - an estimated one per cent of all deaths - a major study has found.

Children are the group most heavily exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke, and around 165,000 die as a result, said researchers.

The World Health Organisation study is the first to assess the global impact of inhaling other people's smoke.

The findings have been published by the Lancet.

Source-ANI