By Marina Green

From a baby’s first cry until that final breath, our lungs are synonymous with life. 

They serve as the interface between our bodies and the outside world —  a linchpin whose function as a primal, unconscious, automatic reflex is increasingly under assault from climate change. 

Whether from air pollution and rising concentrations of particulate matter, fluctuating ozone or soaring allergen levels, an invisible chokehold is silently threatening lung health as we know it.  

Climate change is evident in the active hurricane season, melting ice caps, rising sea levels and massive wildfires, but its impact is also stealthy, creeping into our bodies to attack our lungs — the very organs that deliver life-giving oxygen throughout our body. 

Consider hotshot firefighters, for example, who tell of increasing health risks from urban interface fires sending plastics, rubber and other toxins skyward. Those materials compound the risk for firefighters who now frequently battle blazes in terrain where urban areas border thick forests. 

Author Beth Gardiner addresses the interconnection between air pollution and climate change in her book, “Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution.” 

“They are both symptoms of the same thing, which is this unhealthy foundation we’ve built our modern world on: fossil fuels,” Gardiner said in an article in WBUR. “The causes of air pollution and climate change overlap to a very large degree.” 

Lungs: At Once Powerful and Fragile 

In the 22,000 or so times we breathe each day, in addition to distributing oxygen, our lungs are busily working to remove waste gases. When pollutants sneak past the natural filters in the nose, the cilia that help protect the lungs can be paralyzed or destroyed. 

Then dirt and germs can build up in the mucus, leaving lungs defenseless against disease.  

“The lung, too, is a point of vulnerability,” Gardiner writes in her book. “While it has its defenses—the mucus that traps some contaminants, the hairlike cilia that sweep away others—this is the place where the outside world makes its way into the very center of the body, barriers left far behind as the air and whatever it carries come within a whisper of the bloodstream.” 

Beware Climate Change 

A warming world is especially toxic for the elderly and for those with pulmonary diseases, warned Dr. Vanessa Kerry, a critical care physician and a program director in the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. 

It is time for pulmonologists and critical care doctors to consider the coming impact of climate change on their patients, Kerry told attendees at this year’s CHEST Annual Meeting, a gathering of top experts in chest medicine from around the world, as reported by Healio. 

Kerry, who is also CEO of Seed Global Health, and the director general’s special envoy for climate change and health for the WHO, discussed the roles that pollution, allergens and ozone, heightened by climate change, can play in lung health. 

“Climate change is increasing heat and drought, leading to the increased risk of wildfires, and smoke from wildfires create particulate matter, ozone and toxic gasses and chemicals, which are all linked to shortness of breath, asthma, COPD [and] have been associated with premature death in infants and low birth weight,” Kerry said in Healio. 

As climate change progresses, policy changes are needed, she said, noting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) finalized change to the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for fine particulate pollution from 12 µg/m3 to 9 µg/m3 , in February. 

The EPA wrote that this change will prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths, prevent 290,000 lost workdays and result in up to $46 billion in net health benefits in 2032. 

“While all particulate matter of any size is a concern, the small diameter is particularly worrisome because it can penetrate deeply,” Kerry said. 

The Role of Ozone 

Another environmental factor that impacts lung health and is worsened by climate change is ozone, according to Kerry. 

Ozone “creates bronchial inflammation, airway hyperresponsiveness via oxidative injury and inflammation,” she said. 

People who suffer from COPD are particularly impacted by higher ozone levels. In fact, one of every nine COPD deaths globally is attributable to ozone, largely in India and China, she said. 

Ozone also impacts asthma events, which Kerry highlighted citing a study published in JAMA that tracked ozone and other air pollutant levels before, during and after the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. During the 17-day Olympic Games period, researchers reported a 27.9% reduction in peak daily ozone concentrations and a 41.6% reduction in acute asthma care events. 

Longer Pollen Seasons 

Climate change also leads to longer pollen seasons, and anyone who suffers from seasonal allergies knows the problems that can cause. 

 “With more carbon dioxide in the air [and] warmer temperatures, plants are producing more pollen,” Kerry said. “We’re seeing them grow in more locations [and] flower over longer periods, so we’re having earlier and longer pollen seasons [and] higher pollen potency.” 

Flourishing mold growth, such as that which develops in homes that have flooded, is another gift of climate change, Kerry said. 

Lung Health in a Changing World 

The signs are all around us, in the air, on land and at sea. 

“Climate change is harming health across the country and around the world.” That’s the warning straight from the American Lung Association web site. The advice that follows is: “Learning about its impacts on your lungs can help you protect yourself and your family.” 

The time is now. Your breath and your life depend on it.