Heart and lung functions may deteriorate rapidly when visiting the most polluted cities

Health and Medical

(Reuters Health) – Heart and lung functions may deteriorate quickly if a healthy person visits a city with high levels of air pollution compared to his home, according to a small study.

Travelers who suffer from respiratory or heart disease problems should plan to protect themselves in the most polluted areas, the researchers said in their study published in the Journal of Travel Medicine.

"Travelers may find themselves in a completely different environment in a new city in hours and without the necessary awareness or capacity to adapt to pollution in those cities," said research team leader Terry Gordon of New York University School of Medicine in an e-mail to Reuters Health. .

He added that the number of travelers around the world exceeds 1.2 billion people annually and many of them are heading to "big cities" where more than 10 million people live and may find themselves in areas with high levels of air pollution.

"Most tourists get vaccinations from infectious diseases and information about diseases and disasters in the destinations they plan to visit," he said. "But very few people care about air pollution that could harm their health and even spoil their entire journey."

The study included 34 healthy, non-smoking adults living in the New York City area who plan to travel to major cities outside the United States. Participants agreed to measure cardiovascular function before and during travel and after returning from their flights.

The team provided volunteer travelers with blood pressure, heart rate and lung capacity devices and trained them to record their measurements twice a day from the week before they left the country and then during the travel period and up to a week after their return.

The researchers asked tourists who visited cities in Africa, East Asia, Europe and South Asia to pay attention to symptoms such as breathlessness, coughing, chest tightness, nasal breathing, nasal congestion, mild dizziness and runny nose.

The research team also collected daily data on air pollution in each city intended for tourists and included the average concentration of toxic particles known as the BM 2.5 particles.

The researchers found that the average concentration of these particles was just over 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air in the New York area and ranged from 18 to 25 in European cities, 60 to 80 in Africa, East Asia and almost 100 in South Asia. However, in a number of places in East and South Asia, up to 500 micrograms per cubic meter of air has been reached.

The research team plans to expand its scope to include larger groups of tourists, as well as vulnerable travelers with heart or lung problems, as well as children, the elderly and those traveling to other countries because of their jobs such as federal and military personnel.

(tagsToTranslate) Heart and lung functions (t) Heart (t) lungs