Annnnnd, breathe!

June 3 is Clean Air Day in Canada

Air quality in Canada is relatively good, but anyone with pulmonary hypertension (PH) will be aware that air quality affects our health. Air pollution from humans burning fossil fuels for transportation, home heating and cooking, and in industry is significant, but due to climate change, air pollution from dust, pollen, and wildfires is also increasing.

For people with pulmonary hypertension, air quality is especially important. On World Pulmonary Hypertension Day last year, PHA Europe held a webinar exploring the critical connection between pulmonary hypertension and climate change:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_akXQhX1C6o

One UK study found that various air pollutants raised people’s chance of developing or dying from pulmonary hypertension. Another study in China, which examined over a thousand participants with pulmonary arterial hypertension, echoed these results. Over three years of exposure, the worse the air quality a person with pulmonary arterial hypertension experienced, the higher their chances of death or lung transplantation. Lab test results were worse in those exposed to poor-quality air.

What can you do to improve air quality where you live?

• Health Canada has an excellent list of sources of indoor air pollution—cooking, smoking, heating, having an attached garage, and so on—and how to improve them.

• Environment Canada has extensive information about the Air Quality Health Index, including tips on assessing your own level of sensitivity to air pollution, current local Air Quality Health Index ratings, and wildfire updates, so you can take steps to protect yourself.

• The Lung Health Foundation has a list of actions you can take and tips you can use, even suggesting a seasonal schedule to make taking action more manageable.

This Clean Air Day, choose one action you can take to improve air quality in your home or community. You’ll help protect your health and the health of those around you.