Flight from Cleveland to Washington and on to Johannesburg - A Short Safari Adventure Among Africa's Thorny Bushveld Wildlife - page 161

Taj Mahal Stained by Pollution
Temple out in the Indian Countryside but still Obscured
The question of how particulate matter, volatile gases, and other forms of pollution affect
health is sometimes debated. Clearly soot is a factor and any patient over the age of about 20
years has lungs blackened by soot accumulation. This is clearly visible over the lung's surface
in surgery, and much more so in smokers. The acid content in smog irritates eyes and the other
chemicals cause respiratory irritation. The most severe consequences are the more insidious
price of air pollution and are typically only recognized years later. In the patients we see for
the new experimental percutaneous remotely inserted aortic valves, it is of note how many
worked in air polluted environments in the northern USA such as iron and steel mills,
foundries, coal mines, factories, and farms, during a past era when there was little control of
dust, asbestosis and air pollutants. Hence, many of the elderly have “industrial lung disease”,
often without knowing that is an underlying problem. Of more recent interest is the finding that
cardiovascular disease is also increased by particulate pollution (particle less than 2 microns,
so called PM25). It has become increasingly clear that exposure to PM25, like diesel fumes,
increase both the risk of immediate heart attacks but also long term exposure increases the later
risks of heart attack. The mechanism appears to be that these PM25 pollutants change the