How Air Pollution is Impacting Your Health

Whether you live in a bustling metropolitan area, a rural homestead, or a suburb somewhere in between, your health is being impacted by the quality of the air you breathe. Air quality is a major determinant of health, as polluted air has been linked to cardiovascular disease, several types of cancer, asthma, neurological disorders, liver and skin disease, and beyond. 

Air that is particularly harmful to our health and wellness has high concentrations of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and/or sulfur dioxide

What causes air pollution 

You may be wondering how all these harmful materials end up in our seemingly pristine O2. Some natural causes include:

• Lightning
• Volcanos 
• Wildfires

And some human-made causes include:

• Emission from motor vehicles and airplanes
• Fuel oils and natural gas used to heat homes and buildings
• Industrial waste from manufacturers (think smoke stacks with giant clouds of smoke that you may see on the highway)
• Byproducts from Livestock 

How much pollution does your city have?

AirNow is a trusted source of information that collects massive amounts of air quality data on a regular basis. On any given day, you can visit AirNow.gov to see a measurement index of how clean the air is in your city. 

How to improve the air around you

While we can’t all pick up and move to the secluded mountains of New Caledonia, the village cited with the cleanest air on earth, there are some steps you can take to avoid the diseases associated with poor air quality.

• Wear a mask. while it was the Covid-19 pandemic that normalized mask-wearing in many major U.S. cities, we can utilize masks to filter out other types of toxins that cause polluted air
• Avoid smoking and being in condensed spaces with other smokers
• Skip the drive. If feasible, choose a walk over getting in your vehicle
• Keep your car in proper maintenance by changing the oil regularly and always resolving those dreaded check engine alerts
• Switch to electric whenever possible: stoves, lawnmowers, snow blowers
• Plant and care for trees in your area

The quality of the air we share can be improved by trees, which naturally filter the unwanted chemicals in polluted air. Unfortunately, the number of trees on our planet decreases year over year due to deforestation.

That’s why, on behalf of our partner physicians, Castle Connolly Private Health Partners has decided to work with Evertreen to plant 1,000 trees in 2023. Evergreen is a trusted environmental ally which has planted almost 500,000 trees, absorbing 88,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

We are proud to partner with Evertreen, and we think you would be too! If you’d like to contribute to their important mission, visit evertreen.com.