Скачать или смотреть ABC 4 News - Brief exposure to bad air triggers childhood lung infections

​Even the briefest increase in airborne fine particulate matter PM2.5 — which is made up of pollution-causing particles that are about 3 percent of the diameter of human hair — is associated with the development of acute lower respiratory infection in young children and leads to increased physician visits for affected children, according to newly published research by a team from Intermountain Healthcare, Brigham Young University, and the University of Utah.

The groundbreaking study, titled "Short-Term Elevation of Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Acute Lower Respiratory Infection," involved almost 150,000 patients and is the largest study ever on the subject.

The research is published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, an American Thoracic Society journal — and has been reported in numerous professional and mass media outlets including the New York Times, The Guardian in the United Kingdom, Medscape, Science Daily, Infectious Disease News, and more.

"The most important finding of this study is that infectious processes of respiratory disease may be influenced by particulate matter pollution at various levels," says lead author Benjamin Horne, PhD, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute. "The exact biological implications of the study's findings require further investigation."