New York: A recent study revealed exposures to air pollution could not only cause respiratory diseases but could also cause bone fractures.
The emissions from gas, diesel engines can increasingly cause bone fractures apart from polluting air which is now posing as a health hazard in Delhi and its surrounding regions who continue to
‘Osteoporosis’ is a common bone disease in which the bones lose the bone mass resulting weak and brittle bones which fail to repair themselves, a common disease seen in the elderly people.
The study published in Lancet Planetary Health journal shows 692 participants exposed to higher levels of black carbon and air particulate matter more than 2.5PM showed lower levels of calcium bone-related hormone called ‘parathyroid hormone’.
The bone density material in these participants exposed to higher PM’s has gradually decreased resulting in bone fractures.
Researchers led by Andrea Baccarelli, Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the Columbia University, the US said: “Particulate matter, including PM2.5, is known to cause systemic oxidative damage and inflammation, which could accelerate bone loss and increase the risk of bone fractures in older individuals.”
“Smoking, which contains several particulate matter components, has also been consistently associated with bone damage,” they said.
The research team analyzed these 692 low-income adults in Boston Area.
The team found that the cases of bone fractures in the elderly participants increased with even a small rise in PM2.5 concentrations, which would then, in turn, increase their risk of death by 20 percent.