About a third of 2019's asthma cases related to prolonged exposure to PM2.5, global study finds
asthma cases reported in 2019 were related to prolonged exposure to pollution due to PM2.5 or fine particulate matter, a finding that researchers said provided «sufficient evidence» on the link between air pollution and asthma. The review of 68 studies conducted from 2019-2023 across 22 countries, including South Asian ones, showed that for every 10 micrograms per cubic metre increase in PM2.5, the risk of developing childhood or adult asthma increases by over 21 per cent.
The respiratory condition is marked by recurring symptoms of wheezing, coughing and breathlessness and can severely impair quality of life.
«We estimate that globally in 2019, almost a third of asthma cases are attributable to long-term PM2.5 exposure, corresponding to 63.5 million existing cases and 11.4 million new cases,» first author Ruijing Ni, from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, said.
While evidence has suggested long-term exposure to fine particulate matter pollution to be a risk factor for developing asthma, the researchers said that inconsistencies in earlier studies left potential health risk of this exposure to debate.
However, their analysis, published in the journal One Earth, found that «long-term exposure to PM2.5 significantly increases asthma risk in both children and adults and is associated with (nearly) 30 per cent asthma cases globally».
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