A new study published in the British Medical Journal ( BMJ ) finds a relationship between short-term exposure to PM 2.5 particles and the possibilities of contracting diseases such as sepsis, fluid and electrolyte disorders, acute and nonspecific kidney failure, and obstruction bowel without hernia.
PM 2.5 are fine particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns (our hair has a diameter of about 70 microns!) That are present in the air and that come mainly from the combustion of diesel . Being so fine, PM 2.5 can travel to the lungs and enter the bloodstream . For this reason, PM 2.5 has been associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, a 1993 study showed a clear association between airborne PM 2.5 and death rates in six American cities. The study published on November 27, 2019 in BMJ goes further and has found evidence of its relationship with other pathologies that are not respiratory or cardiovascular.
The group of researchers analyzed the more than 95 million hospital admissions that occurred between 2000 and 2012 in the United States among beneficiaries of Medicare health insurance. They found that several prevalent but rarely studied disease clusters were associated with short-term exposure to PM 2.5, including sepsis, fluid and electrolyte disorders, acute and nonspecific renal failure, urinary tract infections, and urinary tract infections. skin and subcutaneous tissue.
In addition, the positive associations that previous studies had already found between short-term exposure to PM2 (particles larger than PM 2.5) and PM 2.5 and various disease groups, including heart failure, pneumonia, disease, were confirmed. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchiectasis, acute myocardial infarction, cardiac dysrhythmias, coronary atherosclerosis and other heart diseases, respiratory failure, failure or arrest, Parkinson’s, diabetes mellitus, phlebitis, thrombophlebitis and thromboembolism. The days that the concentration of pollutants in the air rose, the number of hospital admissions for these diseases increased almost automatically.
In the present study, it was seen that for each increase of one microgram of P 2.5, the increase in hospitalization did not rise more than 1%, even for the diseases with the highest incidence. For Medicare this represents an approximate cost of 93 million euros. It is important to note that even in exposures to PM 2.5 that were below the air quality guideline established by the WHO, there were health consequences . This leads the working group to think that it is necessary to update this guideline.
This study has been carried out on people over 65 years of age , certain ethnic groups and people with low incomes, who are those who enjoy Medicare health insurance. Therefore, as the researchers indicate, caution must be exercised when extrapolating the results to the world population.
They also point out that low-income people as well as ethnic minorities tend to be more affected than others by an equivalent exposure to PM , in addition to being more exposed both nationally and internationally .
Another point to bear in mind is that people who are more delicate in their health or who have chronic diseases and who are frequently older people, such as those in the study, are more susceptible to becoming ill.
Regardless of the limitations mentioned, those responsible for the study emphasize the importance of reducing the concentrations of pollutants to reduce the incidence of diseases that have been seen to be associated with PM and other pollutants.
