Imagine you are in a plane, on a slow descent into any major airport. In the miniature landscape beneath you, you see the giant loops of free-ways and highways and roads. You see the sky-scrapers of the city center in the distance, and in between, you see the neatly laid out rectangles of housing developments, and driveways. How close those housing developments are to the high-ways and large roads has a strong bearing on the health of the residents, and especially on their lungs. The villain in this story is traffic related air pollution.The European Respiratory Society (ERS) recently released the results of a new study that demonstrated “the damaging effects of road-side pollution.” Their study focused on people who were suffering from bronchiectasis.

A Bit of Background for Bronchiectasis: Bronchiectasis causes the airways of the lungs to become widened. This condition leads to an increase of excess mucus. One of the common causes is cystic fibrosis (CF), and experts typically classify cases either as CF related, or not CF related.

The New Research: The scientists investigated “the association between the residential distance to a main road and the number of deaths in a group of 189 people with non-CF bronchiectasis between June 2006 and October 2012.”

The Scientific Method: The scientists utilized “hazard ratios,” and estimated the risk of death in the group of 189 patients.

The Discovery: They proved  that participants who lived further from the large roads in the study were less likely to die from bronchiectasis than those who lived closer to the large roads. They measured the “hazard ratio 0.36 for every tenfold increase in distance to a major road.”

The Final Conclusions:

Pieter Goeminne, the leading author of the study said, “Our results are the first to link air pollution with the risk of death in people with bronchiectasis and adds to a number of other studies showing the dangers of living close to a busy road.” The Florida Lung Doctors hope that city planners, architects, and home builders will take this study seriously as they build cities of tomorrow, and repair the infrastructure of today. In the Words of Peter Goeminne, “The findings of this study should encourage policymakers to make air quality a key focus of transport policies and consider the proximity of main roads to residential areas.”

Professor Francesco Blasi, European Respiratory Society President, commented, “This study has added crucial evidence to our understanding of how living close to a busy road can affect people with poor lung health.”

A Pink Ribbon Study!

In fact, in keeping with our pink ribbons and the October emphasis on Breast Cancer, we are aware that the pollutants of every day modern urban life, such as those in the air, have also been studied as one of the major risk factors for that dread disease.

In 2010, a Montreal study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, by researchers from The Research Institute of the MUHC (RI MUHC; Dr. Mark Goldberg), McGill University (Drs. Goldberg, Dan Crouse and Nancy Ross), and Université de Montréal (Dr. France Labrèche), found a strong link between the risk of breast cancer and traffic-related air pollution.

“We found that risk increased by about 25 per cent with every increase of NO2 of five parts per billion.” (NO2 is not a carcinogen, but often exists in concert with them.)

Their studies, based on a marker NO2, also concluded strong evidence in regards to residence and traffic. Their work indicated “women living in the areas with the highest levels of pollution were almost twice as likely to develop breast cancer as those living in the least polluted areas.”

Once again, thank you for reading the Lung Florida Doctors blog, and we hope you will be aware of the air you breathe, for the sake of your breasts and your chests.