Covid Lays Bare the Flaws in Asia’s Booming Megacities

asiafoundation.org

August 19, 2020

Throughout modern history, pandemics—like wars, earthquakes, catastrophic fires, and other sweeping calamities—have fundamentally shaped and transformed cities. In the early 20th century, the Spanish Flu bore witness to the dangers of concentrating people in dense urban housing. In its aftermath, city governments in Europe and the Americas embraced new urban planning strategies to make cities healthier and more livable. Their efforts focused on creating more parkland and giving cities green “lungs.” More recently, the 1994 outbreak of pneumonic plague in Surat, India, led to the establishment of a citywide system to monitor public health, while the 2003 SARS outbreak prompted Singapore to improve its medical infrastructure. Tiếp tục đọc “Covid Lays Bare the Flaws in Asia’s Booming Megacities”

Research shows air pollution could play role in development of cardiometabolic diseases

sciencedaily.com

August 20, 2020

Source:University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

Summary:Air pollution is the world’s leading environmental risk factor, and causes more than nine million deaths per year. New research shows air pollution may play a role in the development of cardiometabolic diseases, such as diabetes. Importantly, the effects were reversible with cessation of exposure.

Researchers found that air pollution was a “risk factor for a risk factor” that contributed to the common soil of other fatal problems like heart attack and stroke. Similar to how an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise can lead to disease, exposure to air pollution could be added to this risk factor list as well.

“In this study, we created an environment that mimicked a polluted day in New Delhi or Beijing,” said Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD, first author on the study, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at University Hospitals Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute, and Director of the Case Western Reserve University Cardiovascular Research Institute. “We concentrated fine particles of air pollution, called PM2.5 (particulate matter component < 2.5 microns). Concentrated particles like this develop from human impact on the environment, such as automobile exhaust, power generation and other fossil fuels.” Tiếp tục đọc “Research shows air pollution could play role in development of cardiometabolic diseases”