Industrial pollution may be a cause of laryngitis
by Michael Smith
Pollution, allergens and passive smoking could be to blame for long-lasting and recurrent cases of laryngitis, say American doctors.
Airborne toxic gases and fine soot - particulate matter - can be the root cause of all manner of ailments from heart disease to asthma.
Now research from the American Academy of Otolaryngology, or head and neck surgery, have published research suggesting that many cases of laryngitis can be put down to poor environmental conditions rather than the usual list of suspects for the ailment.
Laryngitis symptoms include hoarseness of the voice, cough, and chronic clearing of the throat which researchers and doctors generally attribute to a viral infection and overuse of the voice.
Other factors, including consistent exposure to second-hand smoke, have also been cited as a trigger.
Researchers have now found through animal experiments that exposure to different environmental pollutants, including dust mites and everyday air pollution, can cause what they term "environmental laryngitis."
According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology, the findings are significant, given recent reports on diminishing air quality and increased unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution, especially in emerging economies like China, which could lead to more cases of laryngitis and chronic laryngitis in particular.
But not just laryngitis appears to be caused in this way too but also ailments that appear to be a kind of chest infection and also some kinds of asthma. As stated in earlier in this article already airborne toxic gases and fine soot, so-called particulate matter, can be the root to all manner of ailments that often appear to doctors to have a different source or one that cannot be explained.
Therefore, whether or not “Climate Change” may be the result of CO2 and/or other such emission, we must curb any such emissions possible, as well as reduce the impact that we have on the environment and Nature in general in order for us, as the human race, so to speak, to survive at all.
Whether climate change is something that we have control over or not is not the issue in this case. We must get to grips with the emissions of all kinds or else we will be history before even the seas may rise and flood some areas.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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Laryngitis joins list of ailments that are blamed on pollution
