Question: have you found out how air pollution hurts our lungs

Liza Selley answered on 1 Jun 2018:

Scientists have been trying to answer this question since 1952 when a very thick fog covered London for 5 days, causing breathing problems and chest infections that killed around 4000 people.

Lots of experiments have shown that air pollution inflames the lungs (making them red and sore) – hence why we get sore chests after breathing in bonfire smoke. If this inflammation carries on for a long time the air sacs inside the lungs become damaged, making it hard to breathe and preventing us from getting enough oxygen from the air.

My research looks at a different detail – it shows that air pollution destroys the part of the lungs that gets rid of the germs that we breathe in. That’s why people who live in polluted cities get more coughs and colds than people who breathe cleaner air.