9 Reasons How The Air You Are Breathing Could Be Making You Sick

Do you or a loved one suffer from asthma? Needing to use your inhaler more often? Wonder why you keep getting that sinusitis so often?

The air quality around us may be to blame, especially indoor air.

It was a September morning about 11 years back shortly after I first moved to Atlanta from the Northeast. I lived in a ground level apartment close to our clinic, in the hopes of shortening my commute during residency. However, the roof above me had a different idea. Water started dripping from it like raindrops all over my bedroom just as I got ready to leave. Somehow water had collected in the space between my ceiling and the apartment above. Now the ceiling was soggy enough to let the water drip through.

Fast forward a few hours, the maintenance crew arrived, drilled a 12 inch square hole in my closet and got to work as I managed to scramble to work. That evening I came down with the biggest and lengthiest episode of bronchitis I ever had in my life so far. So bad that it didn’t respond to even to oral and injectable steroids! The last episode of bronchitis I had had before that was in my childhood.

Almost two months later, as I got out of the bronchitis, I noticed that each time I walked through the closet area I would feel an instant needle like stinging sensation in my sinuses. It was almost like if I were breathing in glass particles as dust. Soon I would start wheezing. It became easy to spot the correlation: if I got the stinging in my sinuses, a few minutes later I would wheeze.

Turns out the ceiling and insulation had fiberglass components which had to be sawed through, releasing the fiberglass particles as dust onto the closet carpet. And boy, man was it hard to get rid of – no amount of vacuuming would completely pick it all up (…yes I see your concern, thank God I remembered to wear a mask while cleaning). I would still get the symptoms on passing through the area.

There was more water damage that new year’s eve. Water just poured from the ceiling when a sprinkler burst in the winter. Eventually I ended up moving out of that apartment.

I wouldn’t wish that respiratory illness on anyone. So wanted to share with you some of the agents in the air around us we may not usually keep an eye out for, that could be affecting our health.

Let’s take a look at the most common air pollutants in the US. This is on average what you and I breath in everyday.

According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), six major classes of air pollutants have been identified: these are the ones the EPA has scientific evidence based information of, to develop regulatory measures (i.e enough data to make recommendations of permissible levels to ensure health and safety). These are:

1. Carbon monoxide
2. Lead
3. Nitrogen oxides
4. Ground-level ozone
5. Particle pollution (often referred to as particulate matter)
6. Sulfur oxides

In addition, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) mentions the following common air pollutants:

1. Acrolein: from burning of tobacco (esp smoking: first and second hand) and other plants or when fats are overheated (fried-food lovers: be on guard!)

2. Asbestos

3. Benzene: from cigarette smoking, natural gas combustion

4. Carbon Disulfide

5. Creosote: mixtures of many chemicals created by high-temperature treatment of beech and other woods, coal, or from the resin of the creosote bush; coal tar creosote is the “most common wood preservative in the United States. Coal tar, coal tar pitch, and coal tar pitch volatiles are used for roofing, road paving, aluminum smelting, and coking” per CDC.

6. Fuel oils/Kerosene

7. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs):  formed during incomplete burning of coal, oil and gas, garbage, or other organic substances like tobacco or charbroiled meat

8. Synthetic Vitreous Fibers: a group of fibrous, inorganic materials that contain aluminum or calcium silicates, and are made from rock or stone, clay, slag, or glass. Commonly used in building insulation and furnace insulation.

9. Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons: from crude oil and petroleum

How do the pollutants affect our health?

Let’s look at the information from the CDC on the health effects of these (the organ systems affected by each, including cancer causation if supporting data is available):

1. Carbon monoxide:  Cardiovascular (Heart and Blood Vessels), Death, Neurological (Nervous System), Respiratory (From the Nose to the Lungs)
2. Lead: Neurological (Nervous System), Renal (Urinary System or Kidneys); per EPA: Probable human carcinogen (i.e. cancer-causing).
3. Nitrogen oxides: None (if you remember, the earliest anesthetic/ laughing gas was a nitrogen oxide)
4. Ground-level ozone: the link to the CDC website on this one is non-functional. However, to quote the EPA, “Breathing ozone can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, and airway inflammation. It also can reduce lung function and harm lung tissue. Ozone can worsen bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma, leading to increased medical care. “
5. Particle pollution (often referred to as particulate matter): the CDC link is non-functional, but to quote the EPA, “Particulate matter contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. Some particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter can get deep into your lungs and some may even get into your bloodstream. Of these, particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as fine particles or PM_2.5, pose the greatest risk to health.” Mainly respiratory disorders.
6. Sulfur oxides: Respiratory (From the Nose to the Lungs)
7. Acrolein: not enough data on adverse health effect s in humans though in animals can cause stomach irritation, vomiting
8. Asbestos: asbestosis (lung scarring from inhaled asbestos fibers), pleural (membranous covering of the lung) disease, mesothelioma (cancer of the pleura), lung cancer
9. Benzene: Hematological (Blood Forming), Immunological (Immune System), Neurological (Nervous System); Cancer Classification: EPA: Known human carcinogen.
10. Carbon disulfide: Developmental (effects while organs are developing), Neurological (Nervous System)
11. Creosote: Dermal (Skin), Hepatic (Liver); Cancer Classification: EPA: Probable human carcinogen
12. Fuel oils/ kerosene: Dermal (Skin), Dermal (Skin), Hepatic (Liver), Hepatic (Liver), Neurological (Nervous System), Ocular (Eyes), Respiratory (From the Nose to the Lungs)
13. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH): Hepatic (Liver); Cancer Classification: EPA: Confirmed human carcinogen
14. Synthetic vitreous fibers: Respiratory (From the Nose to the Lungs)
15. Total petroleum hydrocarbons: Developmental (effects during periods when organs are developing) , Hematological (Blood Forming), Hepatic (Liver), Immunological (Immune System), Renal (Urinary System or Kidneys) – pregnant moms: be safe!

The individual levels of each may vary by the geographic location. For current updated air quality data at your residence, please visit airnow.gov

I know that was a slightly lengthy post packed with data, but I wanted to share with you the bare minimum effects from each agent above. Hoping you can stay informed of the air quality near you, so you can take precautions, especially if you suffer from asthma or COPD.

If you are looking for a solution outside of pharmacologic agents aka medicines, then read on (hey, am I supposed to tell you that? 😉 ).

To read about the houseplants that have been studied to naturally purify indoor air, click here.

To read about 8 hidden triggers of asthma lurking in every home and how to get rid of them, click here.

Hope you can breath easy, now that we know what to do about it. Forewarned is forearmed my friend!