According to recent research published online with in open access journal RMD Open, those who are released into the atmosphere pollution for longer durations are more likely to develop autoimmune diseases (like rheumatoid), connective tissue diseases, and inflammatory bowel diseases.
Adaptive immunity, the body’s response to a specific illness agent, can be triggered by air pollution from car emissions and industrial output. However, this adaptive response can go awry, resulting in systemic inflammation, tissue injury, and eventually autoimmune disease.
A increased incidence of rheumatoid, inflammatory bowel disease, and connective tissue illnesses is associated with long-term exposure to industrial and traffic-related air pollution.
Rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, ulcerative colitis, connective tissue disease, and multiple sclerosis are all examples of autoimmune disease.
In the past decade, both the incidence rates of these illnesses have progressively risen, while the causes for this aren’t totally known According to the experts, there is still controversy about whether air pollution increases the risk of autoimmune illness.
More than 3500 clinicians in Italy submitted health information on 81,363 people between June 2016 – November 2020 to a national fractures risk database (DeFRA) in an effort to shed light on the issue.
The vast majority of participants (92%) were female, with a mean lifespan of 65, while 17866 (22%) had to have at least one founder health condition.
The Italian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Research used home postcodes to link each participant to the closest air quality monitoring site.
Particulate matter was of special interest to the researchers (PM10 and PM2.5). PM10 levels of 30 micrograms per cubic metre and PM2.5 levels of 20 micrograms per cubic metre are deemed detrimental to human health, respectively.
Between 2016 and 2020, 9723 persons were diagnosed with just an autoimmune condition.
A total of 617 sites in 110 Italian regions monitored the air quality to gather this data. Long-term exposure averaged 16 micrograms per cubic metre for PM2.5 and 25 micrograms per cubic metre for PM10 between 2013 and 2019.
The risk of developing an autoimmune disease was not increased by exposure to PM2.5. After taking into consideration all the variables that could have an impact, an increase in PM10 concentration was shown to be linked with a 7% increase in risk.
There was a 12 percent and a 13 percent increase in the risk of autoimmune illness with long-term exposure to PM10 concentrations greater than 30 g/m3 and PM2.5 concentrations greater than 20 g/m3.
Rheumatoid arthritis was specifically linked to long-term exposure to PM10, whereas long-term exposure was linked to an increased risk of rheumatoid, collagenous illnesses, and inflammatory diseases.
Traffic and industry air pollutants have been linked with an increased chance of developing rheumatoid arthritis, an increased risk of colitis (IBD), and an increase in the risk of collagenous disease (CTD).
An observational research, by definition, cannot prove causation. Researchers also point out that their findings may have been skewed by a number of factors.
Among them are the following: a lack of data on when patients were diagnosed with autoimmune disease and when symptoms began; the possibility that air quality does not reflect individual pollutants; and the possibility that the findings may not be more broadly applicable even though study participants mostly comprised aged women at risk of rupture.
Rheumatoid arthritis is predisposed to those who smoke because of chemicals in the smoke that are similar to those found in fossil fuel emissions.
