14 DAY TRIAL // In a paper that was recently published in the journal Risk Analysis, Dr. Pierre Brochu with the Université de Montréal's School of Public Health, says that, according to evidence at hand, overweight and obese people are more vulnerable to air pollution than people who do not struggle with their body size are.
More precisely, the specialist argues that those who pack more weight than what is considered healthy are very likely to breathe in about 7-50% more air pollutants on a daily basis than folks of a normal body size do.
He goes on to detail that overweight and obese children are also more vulnerable to air pollution, meaning that, when compared to youngsters who do not have a weight problem, they probably inhale 10-24% more contaminants.
According to Dr. Pierre Brochu, this can only mean that these categories of people are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma or other similar medical conditions at some point in their lives.
By the looks of it, obese and overweight individuals inhale more air contaminants than ordinary folks do due to the fact that their oxygen needs are higher. Consequently, they have to breathe more air and, with it, suck in whatever compounds and particles are floating about.
As was to be expected, the highest amount of air breathed in on a daily basis was documented in the case of obese class 2 people, i.e. individuals whose weight is between 35-40 kilograms (77.16 – 88.18 pounds) for each square meter of their body.
Thus, these people were found to have a daily air need of about 24.6 m3. “That's 8.2 m3 more than the 16.4 m3 an average adult with normal weight breathes daily, or 50% more air and pollutants,” Dr. Pierre Brochu explains.
In his paper, the specialist stresses that, because they have a higher metabolism, children tend to breathe in more air per kilogram of weight than adults do, and are therefore more vulnerable to pollution.
The researcher now wishes to carry out further investigations into this issue, and determine how these inhalation rates affect a person's overall health condition. “It remains to be seen if high inhalation rates are a factor in the development of asthma and other lung diseases in adults and children,” he says.