“Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” - WHO
Poor air quality is a national disaster in India; whether in Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Agra, Varanasi, or Lucknow, harmful pollutants levels have surpassed the severe range.' While excessive levels of air pollution create health problems ranging from sore throats and eye irritation to respiratory and cardiac ailments, experts think that more research into the effects of air pollution on people's mental health is urgently needed.
The effects of global climate change on mental health and well-being are integral parts of the overall climate-related human health impacts which is mainly caused by air pollution. Air pollution, which is caused by smog, acid rain, motor vehicles, and other factors, has a harmful impact on the Central Nervous System, which can lead to mental health issues. In this, indoor air pollution plays an important role which causes high risk in health benefits.
INDOOR POLLUTANTS AND THEIR EFFECTS :
Has we can see that particulate matterPM2.5 has the potential to harm mental health through a number of mechanisms. Fine particulate matter may have a direct impact on mental health by causing systemic or brain-based oxidative stress and inflammation. Mostof the components can be viewed only through an electron microscope due to the particle size variation (like micro or nanoparticles). PM is very much discussed because it is inhalable, affectingthelungs andheartcausingseriousissues that lead to mental instability.
DEPRESSION :
Major depressive disorder, also colloquially known as Clinical Depression, is characterized by a wide variety of symptoms that cause significant distress and impairment that affects individuals for a sustained period of time.
More than 300 million individuals worldwide suffer from mental diseases such as depression, with an increase of more than 18% documented between 2005 and 2015. According to data from the World Health Survey, 9.3 % to 23% of persons in 60 nations had a chronic physical ailment and depression. Depression is the tenth largest cause of Disability-Adjusted Life Years globally and regionally (DALYs). A DALY is one year of healthy life lost. Depression is anticipated to be one of the top three causes of DALYs by 2030.
SUICIDES :
In comparison to other aspects of health such as mortality, hospitalization rates, respiratory complaints, and prescription sales, the link between air pollution and mental health. For example, suicide rates among women are higher than in both developed (US and UK) and developing countries (India and Mexico), while suicide rates among males are only second to the US among these four countries.
https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health. Researchers studied 83,985 emergency room visits for adults aged 8 to 24 between April 2004 and December 2015 and discovered that increases in PM2.5, ozone, and nitrogen dioxide were all linked to more emergency visits, sometimes up to 5 days after initial exposure to the pollutant.
MOOD SWINGS:
Researchers examined at mental health data from 151 million people in the United States and 1.4 million people in Denmark in a 2019 study published in PLOS Biology, focusing on four specific psychiatric disorders:
· bipolar disorder is a mental illness that affects people
· major depressive disorder (MDD)
· disease of personality (like conduct disorder)
· schizophrenia
While everyone has mood swings to some degree, extreme mood swings can be a symptom of mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder, as well as other mental illnesses like personality disorders. Long periods of heightened air pollution, such as that observed in big urban centres, were connected to a nearly 17 percent increase in occurrences of bipolar disorder, according to researchers.
INDOOR GASES AND THEIR EFFECTS :
According to WHO, Around 2.6 billion people cook over polluting open fires or with rudimentary stoves that burn kerosene, biomass (wood, animal dung, and crop waste), or coal. Noncommunicable diseases such as stroke, ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer are all caused by household air pollution which leads to a critical mental illness. Particulate matter (soot) absorbed from household air pollution is responsible for about half of all pneumonia deaths in children under the age of five . In conjunction with the data, Medcuore Medical Solution Pvt. Ltd. developed Purocare Eco+ has launched a challenge to encourage people to take action to reduce air pollution. Which is latest and effective. Cleans fine PM, toxic pollutants in air, clean air coalition to reduce short lived air pollutants that aims to increase awareness and action on air pollution by every individuals.
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Blog by
Kavya P