Persistent cough, feeling of tightness in the chest, shortness of breath and repeated respiratory infections. These are the 4 symptoms that must be interpreted as alarm signals and lead to a pulmonologist as soon as possible. The recommendation comes on the occasion of the National Breathing Day that returns tomorrow, September 21. Promoted and organized by Aipo-Its/Ets (Italian Association of Hospital Pneumologists – Italian Thoracic Society) and Sip-Irs (Italian Society of Pneumology – Italian Respiratory Saociety), the initiative is dedicated to the central themes of environmental care through breathing care and respiratory health.
With an estimated 7 million premature deaths – a note recalls – air pollution is considered the main environmental cause of disease and death in the world. Furthermore, despite the progress of current sustainability policies, air quality in the most populated cities is still poor and, according to the World Health Organization, approximately 99% of the world’s population breathes air that exceeds the limits of WHO guidelines. Not only that: according to data collected by a study recently published by ‘The Guardian’, 98% of European citizens breathe air of very poor quality and polluted beyond warning levels, causing over 400 thousand premature deaths. This enormous health burden could be avoided by implementing cost-effective interventions, such as vaccination against pneumonia and better access to prevention services and inhalation drugs.
In light of these numbers, Italian pulmonologists are once again raising public awareness and institutions on the importance of breathing cleaner air, precisely because there is a direct link between air quality and a person’s health. “I firmly believe that pulmonology must make its voice heard on the prevention front, and not only on the acute phase and relapse – says Claudio Micheletto, president of Aipo – And since good prevention necessarily includes – in addition to lifestyle, nutrition, vaccination – also the environmental context, the relationship between environmental care and health, especially respiratory health, is fundamental. There is no longer any doubt, in fact, on the correlation between respiratory diseases, air pollution, climate conditions and the great responsibility of fine dust in the increased risk of lung cancer, even if the first risk factor for lung cancer remains cigarette smoking”.
For this reason, Breathing Day “is important: to inform, to create joint working tables with the institutions – adds Micheletto – and also to warn. Symptoms such as a persistent cough, a feeling of tightness in the chest and shortness of breath, or repeated respiratory infections must be interpreted as alarm signals and lead to a pulmonologist as soon as possible”. Fabiano Di Marco, full professor of Respiratory Diseases at the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Milan and president of SIP, invites us to “observe the lights and shadows regarding the link between prevention, environmental care and respiratory health. For example, regarding primary prevention, or changing habits and incorrect behaviors, we are unfortunately faced with a substantial failure. In fact, exposure to cigarette smoke, heated tobacco or electronic cigarettes is still very high, with very high percentages among young people”.
“Furthermore, healthcare facilities are forced to direct their resources towards the treatment of diseases and there are few anti-smoking centers. Still on the level of primary prevention – continues Di Marco – and therefore of air pollution, that produced by industries and vehicular traffic, citizens are also called to do their part, tolerating lower temperatures in their homes and using heating wisely. In this regard, it should be remembered that there has been a major plan for energy efficiency that has generally neglected public housing. A strongly positive factor in prevention, however, is the effectiveness of the current vaccination trend, both with regard to, for example, the anti-pneumococcal vaccination, and with regard to the vaccine for the respiratory syncytial virus, already available and for which we hope the vaccination campaign will be able to start in the coming months”.
It is therefore essential to inform and educate the public on the relationship between air quality and personal health – conclude the pulmonologists – highlighting the importance of prevention and the correlation between prolonged exposure to air pollution and respiratory diseases, as demonstrated by recent international studies.
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