Heavy atmosphere: how we breathe metal nanoparticles

Scientists have for the first time established a clear link between air pollution from toxic respiratory particles and suicide. The results of their study were published in the journal Nature Sustainability: preventing air pollution over five years saved 46 thousand Chinese from suicide. Now we know why the city is so sad. After all, we breathe almost the entire periodic table. Depression is bad, but what’s even worse is that heavy metals in the air increase the death rate from lung cancer.

Humanity has coexisted with billions of microparticles in the air and water for millions of years. Environmentalists have been concerned about this for a long time. Microparticles can be of natural or man-made origin, and they are equally dangerous and harmful. Among them, there are also naturally “severe” cases – microparticles of heavy metals that accumulate in the air into dangerous suspensions, which have already been recorded by scientists. Micromercury, microcopper, microlead and other harmful substances are already around us today. In the form of ultrafine dust, they can enter the human respiratory system, accumulate in the lungs and provoke the most severe diseases – from exacerbation of asthma to lung cancer.

A toxic web hangs in the air

Interestingly, it is not any individual particles in urban air that are most dangerous to us. Our body is simultaneously affected by a whole mixture of chemical compounds. Figuratively speaking, this mixture of solid and liquid microparticles turns the air into a fine fishing “net”. Among them, scientists identify particles with a very small diameter – less than 2.5 micrometers. It’s impossible to imagine this, but you can compare it: the thickness of a human hair is about 80 micrometers.

The worst thing is that the smallest particles contain even smaller ones. They are classified as respirable particles. Many will now remember the respirator. But if a respirator is a means of protecting the respiratory system, then it is extremely difficult to protect yourself from the effects of respirable particles. According to the World Health Organization, they are capable of penetrating the human respiratory system. An increase in respiratory and cardiovascular morbidity and exacerbation of asthma are not yet the most negative consequences of the fact that we breathe suspended particles.

Cars and construction are the “parents” of harmful microparticles in the air

Where do toxic suspensions come from in city air, if not only from clouds of dust? Cars are primarily to blame. Particles are formed during the operation of internal combustion engines. According to a study by scientists MSU, In the air of the capital, it is emissions from motor vehicles that predominate. They contain black carbon, heavy metals and metalloids (among them the main ones are microzinc, microcopper and microlead), as well as dangerous organic compounds. It turns out that we breathe metals.

All residents of large cities know how much construction work there is in the metropolis – you can’t breathe from the omnipresent construction. And in the literal sense, because construction, like the production of building materials (cement, brick, ceramics), is the richest source of respirable particles. This is what mainly pollutes the atmosphere, and not the pieces of plastic from plastic bottles with which Western environmentalists scare the public. By the way, the main source of micro- and nanoplastics in the atmosphere is not only plastic packaging, but ordinary household laundry. Don’t be surprised: a study by Columbia University scientists, published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that most of the nanoplastics in bottled water are thin polyamide fibers. Such “nanofilaments” are separated when washing synthetic items. From washing machines they penetrate first into wastewater, and from there into the oceans.

Why hasn’t humanity as a species become extinct yet, having been “impregnated” through and through with harmful chemical compounds that react directly inside our body? It’s just that over millions of years of evolution we have learned to adapt to any particles. It doesn’t occur to anyone to go back to the Stone Age: don’t erase them and don’t continue building cities. Or completely refuse water in plastic bottles because of the illusory danger from nanoplastics that it may contain. While forgetting about the most important things. The fact that in any emergency, a plastic bottle becomes the only way to provide yourself and others with drinking water. That is, simply to survive.

He who is forewarned is forearmed. This does not mean that you need to run away from harmful micro- and nanoparticles in the air (scientists will continue to discover new tiny elements of our world and dissect them under microscopes for a long time) from cities in the footsteps of Agafya Lykova. Or wear masks all the time, as is customary among some of our eastern neighbors. But home air purification systems won’t hurt at all. Yes, and the mask will be useful in those moments when even the naked nose understands that there is something wrong in the air.