Air-pollution 'as harmful to health as smoking', say Spanish medics
Sunday, November 19, 2017 @ 8:25 PM
AIR-POLLUTION caused by traffic and industry is as harmful to the health of people who live amongst it than smoking cigarettes, according to the Spanish Pneumology and Chest Surgery Society (SEPAR).
“Smoking is the third cause of death in the world, and air-pollution is the fourth; they go hand in hand,” says SEPAR environmental risks coordinator Dr Isabel Urrutia.
“If someone lives with air-pollution, the danger to their health is the same as if they smoked.”
Hospital visits and GP appointments tend to rise on days when smog levels are high, particularly among those with pre-existing respiratory conditions such as asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), known colloquially as 'being broken-winded'.
For people who do not suffer any known condition, high levels of air-pollution in their immediate environment can have serious long-term consequences – in fact, it is one explanation for the increasingly-high number of cases of lung cancer diagnosed in non-smokers who are not exposed to passive smoking.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com