Air Pollution and Eye Health
Narges Seihei1 *, Elham Seihei2 , Fatemeh Zahra Sohrabi Nia3
- Student of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Ahvaz Jundishapour University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
- Speech and language pathologist, Hormozgan, Iran
- Biomedical Engineering Student, University of Science and Arts of Yazd, Yazd, Iran.
Abstract: One of our era's greatest scourges is air pollution, on account not only of its impact on climate change but also its impact on public and individual health due to increasing morbidity and mortality. There are many pollutants that are major factors in disease in humans. The eye is vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. Manifestations of air pollution can range from minimal or no symptoms to chronic discomfort and eye irritation. The aim of this article is Air Pollution and Eye Health.
Methods: Science Direct, Pubmed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ProQuest, Web of Science, and Google Scholar (2010 through 2021) were searched for English-language studies using a list of keywords. The books about Ophthalmology, medicine, Health were studied too.
Results: Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO)—is associated with a higher risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, in which damaged cells in the retina lead to blurry central vision and, in some cases, eventually to vision loss in one or both eyes. The ill effects of air pollution on human eyes are mostly irritation and inflammation, with conjunctivitis being a significant problem. Many research investigations have attempted to discover the effects of environmental toxins on the ocular surface. Our results demonstrate that: (i) the ocular surface cytology and the analysis of tear film changes provide significant information in those patients where no other clinical signs are evident; (ii) DES symptoms are more frequent in women than in men (ratio about 2:1).
Conclusion: High level of air pollution can not only lead to conjunctivitis, eye irritation or dry eye but also increase risk of developing debilitating eye conditions. This study, which combined and integrated air pollution and ophthalmologic data to investigate associations between outpatient visits for nonspecific conjunctivitis and air pollution levels found that the air pollutants NO2, SO2, O3, and PM10 can increase chances of outpatient visits, suggesting possible causes for nonspecific conjunctivitis. The study shows that a favorable air-pollution–monitoring infrastructure, combined with established interdisciplinary research relationships can provide continued examination of mechanisms and changes in the eyes related to air pollution
