Chapter 03
What poor air does to the body.
Four broad categories cover almost all of it, and each one calls for a different fix.
Your lungs and airways
Polluted air irritates and narrows the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. Ozone and PM2.5 are well-known asthma triggers, and long-term exposure is one of the main causes of COPD. Even short spikes in pollution show up as sudden jumps in ER visits for coughing and shortness of breath.
Your heart and blood vessels
Once fine particles slip into the bloodstream, they cause inflammation, stiffen arteries, and push blood pressure up. The American Heart Association links long-term PM2.5 exposure to more heart attacks, more strokes, and more irregular heartbeats, even in people who otherwise take good care of themselves.
Kids, older adults, and everyone else at higher risk
Kids breathe faster than adults, and their lungs are still developing, so they take in more pollution per pound of body weight. Older adults and people with existing conditions get hit hard too. And in the U.S., low-income and minority neighborhoods almost always sit closer to highways, ports, and industrial sites, so they end up breathing drastically worse air, a real environmental-justice issue, not just a statistic.