New study | Breathing affected even by low air pollution

(Montreal) The respiratory function of adults is affected even by low concentrations of outdoor air pollution, reveals a new Montreal study that looked at the situation in Canada.

Jean-Thomas Léveillé
The Press

Often associated with places with high air pollution, the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is also found to be high in populations exposed to long-term air pollution domestically, the Institute found. of the McGill University Health Center (RI-MUHC).

“We are considered a country where the concentrations of pollutants are low, but we have seen that participants who were exposed to an annual average of 7 micrograms per cubic meter of air (µg/m3) were affected”, explained to The Press Dany Doiron, RI-MUHC research associate and co-author of the study.

By way of comparison, the level of fine particles in the air of New Delhi, India, is 113.5 µg/m3, he indicates.

The study thus highlights “that there is not really a safe level for air pollution”, indicates Mr. Doiron, pointing out that the World Health Organization (WHO) lowered last September from 10 at 5 µg/m³ its air pollution guidelines.

“We saw that small increases in fine particulate and nitrogen dioxide air pollution led to clinically significant decreases in respiratory function,” says Dr.^r Jean Bourbeau, professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University and lead author of the study.

This study, published in theAmerican Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicineis the first to examine these associations in the Canadian population.

Vulnerable lungs

The researchers also discovered that a person’s vulnerability to lung problems may be greater in people with “dysanaptic” lungs, that is, lungs whose development has not been proportional to that of the respiratory tracts.

People with smaller airways were 87% more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than people with larger airways, they found.

This is the first time that it has been demonstrated that “differences in the structure of the lungs, which appear early in life, increase susceptibility to the harmful effects of air pollution later in life”, explains Dany Doiron.

Other studies have shown that exposure to air pollution during childhood has negative effects on lung development, underlines the researcher, evoking a vicious circle.

“We must continue to place more emphasis on reducing concentrations of ambient air pollutants,” concludes Dany Doiron, who believes that the reduction in greenhouse gases (GHGs) that is necessary to curb global warming climate will thus have beneficial effects on health.