Those who live in the city already know this. In large cities…
Those who live in the city already know this. In large cities, pollution alerts are part of everyday life. And we find ourselves looking at the blue sky with suspicion, and we find ourselves saying, like the old people in the countryside, “a good shower wouldn’t hurt”, not to see our lettuces grow, but to less to stop coughing. Do we know how toxic the pollution of the air we breathe is? Public Health France denounces the premature death each year in France of 40,000 people, deaths directly linked to pollution. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is the biggest environmental risk to health in the world. Thus, exposure to outdoor air pollution leads each year to the death of approximately 4.2 million people on the planet.
Studies carried out since 1997 in France and in other countries have, for the most part, concluded in an increase, on the one hand, of mortality and hospitalizations for cardiovascular causes, attributable to fine particles, and, on the other hand , mortality and respiratory hospitalizations attributable to ozone and nitrogen dioxide in summer.
Public Health France indicates that even at low levels, exposure to pollutants can cause, the same day or in the days that follow, irritation of the eyes, nose and throat. More seriously, this exposure can also increase chronic respiratory pathologies, promote the occurrence of a heart attack, even causing death.
Climate deregulation
In a report dating from 2019, Public Health France, which compiles epidemiological studies, ensures that in the longer term and even at low concentration levels, “exposure over several years to air pollution can induce health effects much more important only in the short term. There is a link between air pollution and reduced life expectancy, mortality, and the development of cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and lung cancer.
In addition to pollution, climate change generates less and less exceptional episodes of storms during the pollen period. “Thunderstorms occurring during pollen seasons can cause severe asthma attacks in patients with pollen-induced rhinitis,” says the medical journal “Edimark” recalling the worst event associating asthma with thunderstorms, in 2016, in Melbourne, Australia which caused nine deaths and required the medical treatment of 8,500 patients in the emergency room of the city’s hospital.
This episode was a milestone and served as an example. The link between thunderstorms and asthma attacks is due to the combination of heavy rains and electrical charges in the atmosphere, resulting in micronization of pollen grains, released by gusts of wind. Public Health France has studied various episodes of this type in France, and now recommends that people allergic to pollen stay indoors in the event of a storm during a pollen period.