Sebastian 9.

RQ: To what extent is air pollution harming humans respiratory health?

Word count: 1999

Introduction
Today, urbanization and industrialization had dominated the growth for this era.
Factories, cars, and other technologies support humans needs. All these are leading to pollution.
Pollution is caused by pollutants appearing in the air, sea, and under the ground. This made
pernicious pollutants appear almost everywhere we go which is dirty. But the dangerous part is
that whether pollution itself can affect our health or us in any way. The answer to that is yes.
Air pollution is very common and had caused a lot of problems to us and the earth such
as causing early lifespan and much more. Air pollution is caused by pollutants produced by
human actions or activities. Examples of these pollutants that are able to be found in the air are
PM10 [A mixture of dust, pollen, and other allergens], PM 2.5, Sulphur Dioxide, and Carbon
Monoxide (West, James NP). Gases like these are produced as waste materials from cars,
factories, garbage incinerators, and burning of fossil fuels for electricity.
This affects the lungs we breathe and cause other health complications which are lifethreatening. Air pollution had caused many premature deaths and vicious diseases to a lot of
people throughout the world because of those pollutants. Right now, air pollution had affected
major countries such as China, but also undeveloped countries like Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Whenever pollutant is present in a harmful position in the environment, humans respiratory
health will be vulnerable to hazardous chemicals and other toxic materials that will harm us.
Global Perspective: China & India
China is estimated to have 1,398,844,400 people, 21.5 million living in Beijing. Beijing,
one of the worlds biggest cities, is full of business opportunities because of its ability to mass
produce market goods. This made their economic growth unbeatable by any other rivals. But as

their economy became stronger, a lot of harm is done to their environment. It made Beijing into
an industrial city full of pollution because of all the factories and power plants to support their
country. With their population increasing rapidly, they need a lot of things to support themselves.
This caused many coal power plants to be built and traffic increased for the needs of 20 million
people.
There can be many carcinogens that are able to be found in the air in Beijing. The PM2.5
[A mixture of dangerous gases that causes pollution] levels in China are 40 times beyond the
expectations of the WHOs of a healthy air environment; the PM10 is also high too. Once, their
AQI [Air Quality Indexes] soared up to 755, 30 times more worse than the recommended AQI by
WHO[World Health Organization](West, James NP). This made impacts to both the environment
and the citizen's health. A lot of people are put to risk by the air they breathe as they contaminate
their own lungs if they do not take pollution seriously. The pollution in Beijing cuts life
expectancy of the people who lives there by 5.5 years due to chemicals suspended in the air (Xu,
Beina NP). Their lungs will be unhealthy and the pollution will irritate the lungs which causes
difficulty in breathing and other respiratory diseases.
The womans lung cancer rate there is also the highest in the world. Commonly, lung
cancer is usually caused by smoking. But in Beijing, the air pollution is the major threat of the
problem. The cancer levels rose by 465 percent over the past 30 years officials says (Jianju, Hou
NP). China's air quality will make world see its potential on harming a billion people effectively
if they do not act on this issue quickly.
New Delhi, India's capital city, has 17 million people living in it (Population of Delhi
2014 NP). This country was concluded to have the worst air quality in the world of 2014-2015

just above China. This city is located in India, one of the most populous country in SE Asia. The
AQI of New Delhi from 2008 to 2011 is12387 g/m3 for PM2.5 and 208137 g/m3 for PM10,it
is worse than Beijing as this city undeveloped . This mass of pollutants was caused due to the
numbers of vehicles and the burning of resources to provide electricity or power. The numbers of
vehicles in here at 2030 are expected to reach 400 million which poses as a major threat against
air pollution (Iyengar, Rishi NP). The pollution from the vehicles accounts for more than a third
of the pollution and factories or plants accounts for a fourth of the pollution and brick factories &
diesel generators accounts for the rest. This is extremely dangerous as the pollution had caused
7,350 to 16,200 premature deaths and 6.0 million lung irritations per year to the people (Goel,
Rahul NP).
The pollution made asthma, wheezing, coughing, and chest discomfort common for them
if they usually go outdoors and work near the high way or the main streets that has many
vehicles passing by. Pollution in major roads are 8 times more worse than in other rural areas
outside New Delhi during rush hours when a lot of people had finished their job quota for the
day. The pollution had also increase the rate of chronic heart diseases occurring within the poor
workers who does labour.
The pollution had also worsened the lead levels in children's blood and is very dangerous
and may cause cancer in a young age. Metaplasia and dysplasia of airway epithelial cells cases in
New Delhi has also increased significantly with more sputum problems that increased the rates
where children are going to the hospital for treatment (Rizwan, SA, Baridalyne,Nongkynrih, and
Sanjeev Kumar Gupta NP). Blood pressure here has affected elders living in New Delhi as
hypertension rates also increased because of the PM10 levels that made them die earlier.

Nevertheless, New Delhi still holds its position on being the country that has the most dangerous
air in the world that could both harm the environment and humans.
National Perspective
At March 2014, the WHO announced that Southeast Asia is the top-2 largest death
contributor due to air pollution that caused 963,000 fatalities (Maulia, Erwida NP). Indonesia
was no doubt the biggest contributor in the area. Jakarta is a city in Java that was estimated to be
one of the top 10 most populous city in the world, and has about 10.2 million people living in the
city in 2014(WPR NP).But here, pollution is normal to have in their everyday life. A lot of
pedestrians will experience hard time dealing with carbon monoxide going inside their lungs.
Jakartas average AQI in 2013 is about 62 mcg/nm3.The levels had risen sharply since 2008 due
to the rate of newly registered cars in Jakarta (Maulia, Erwida NP). A while ago, Indonesian
motorcycle helmet companies had to implement filters to the helmet because of the pollution in
the streets of Jakarta. Some pedestrians also started using mask on their way to work as the
pollution will harm their lungs and will make breathing difficult. Since traffic is also common
here, it means that cars will stay on the road much longer and produce more carbon monoxide.
Lead can also be found in the air, this substance is made by vehicles and it damages the brain and
nervous system. The levels of lead here had also increased 10 times more than in 2008 due to the
amount of vehicles used every day. It is found that the levels for the nitrogen dioxide from road
traffic had risen 3 times more than in 2008 and is very fatal for the lungs as it damages it
(Maulia,Erwida NP). All these toxic carcinogens will make cardiovascular diseases more
difficult to be handled for the people living in Jakarta. This city is also famous for its resources
such as palm oil, and other types of oil, it supports the economy of this country. Since this
resource was found useful for the Indonesians, industrialization boomed in the 2000s with

economic growth reaching a trillion dollars in their GDP.This resulted in many problems in
Jakarta's air and environment because plantation companies burn forests to create land for more
factories to be built.
Personal Perspective
Leighton Fry, a 3 year old American boy got chronic asthma because of the pollutants he
breathed for a long period of time (Segal,Bob NP). His exposure to these toxic materials had
caused this shocking sickness as asthma usually occurs in older ages than three (Statistics NP).
Leightons mother, Rhiannon said that he had difficulty in inhaling air and had coughs often. He
needs two treatments per day with an additional 5 medications to keep him away from the
emergency room. He can't go to kindergarten nor nursery due to the medications he need to take
daily (Segal,Bob NP).The coal plants near his house is emitting a dangerous gas called sulfur
dioxide, this gas caused the disease Leighton got. His family lives in the suburbs of Indiana in a
town called Washington, 60 miles southwest of Bloomington. He lives 8 miles away from one of
the largest coal power plant in the state with more nearby. In total, 54 million metric tons of
pollutants are released into the air every year (Segal,Bob NP). This made the family try their best
to keep Leighton indoors so he will get better.

Possible Future Scenarios

If these acts are not stopped, the world and us would be in grave danger. Burning fossil
fuels and coal for humans desire would only aggravate the situation where people receive lung
or heart diseases. As more toxic gases are released into the air throughout the future, the rate of

people of getting respiratory related diseases will increase in some regions where there are
massive power plants are built. Mortality rate will also increase in more undeveloped countries
or countries that produce a lot of pollution. Diseases like IHR and COPD will be more common
due to the pollution contaminating humans lungs and will make breathing harder for people who
experience breathing pollution often. People who live in these polluted areas will also have
shorter lifespan as the pollutants will shorten life expectancy by damaging the respiratory and
circulatory systems. And even though a few countries are releasing pollutants, other countries in
the world will industrialize or urbanize more and will cause pollution and will put millions of
lives in danger of getting IHD and COPD and lung cancer. And if this issue is not stopped, more
carcinogens like lead will be abundant in the air and make cancer hard to fight against.

Possible Courses of Actions

What we could do to stop people from experiencing bad air is doing what is not harming
the air quality and going green. We could start off by not using fuel consuming cars but using
hybrid cars, electric cars, and bicycles so that it doesn't produce any carbon monoxide that are
harmful for us. In addition, try your best to recycle because it is healthy for the environment and
will save a lot of money in the process. As you may know, if everybody in a certain city or
country would start recycling often, recycling will actually reduce mass production and will
make it rare for a factory to pop up somewhere in your city. Another one is that we all can raise
awareness on the effects of air pollution by funding anti-pollution campaigns or recycling

campaigns so that the air quality would be much cleaner and wont have any pollutants in it. Use
green energy like wind, hydroelectric, solar energy as we are using natural energy that is given to
us by nature. Green energy doesn't involve pollution to produce energy, but it only takes time. If
these actions were done, the air would be free of toxic metals or other hazardous chemicals in the
air.

Personal Response

I felt like the industrialization and urbanization are to blame. Growth has forced humanity
to choose whether to do industrialization the clean way or the dirty way. Usually, people or the
government will choose the cheapest and the easiest way to support themselves. All of the easy
way will normally involve pollution and other carcinogens released in the air. I believe that if the
world would just use green energy for our daily lives, the air would be much cleaner and there
wouldnt be global warming or anybody who got a case of lung diseases from air pollution. I do
believe that the world would have less people getting diseases from the air around them.
Conclusion
Pollution had brought the environment and ecosystem to a terrible condition, worsening
human respiratory health. Countries such as China had industrialized so much that its pollutants
took a lot of lives from its own country. As industrialization and urbanization occurred, countries
are forced to release pollution into the air, harming a lot of people in the process. Nevertheless,
as urbanization and industrialization grows rapidly, the rate of harmful pollutants released into

the air will increase which will cause more deaths and more environmental issues that will
negatively affect a lot of countries throughout the world.

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<http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/24/world/asia/malaysia-haze/>.

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<http://time.com/3608534/india-new-delhi-worlds-most-polluted-city/>.
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