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The effects on human health due to poor air quality mainly involve the respiratory system and the cardiovascular system, but not only. Individual reactions to air pollutants depend on the type of pollutant a person is exposed to, the degree of exposure, the individual's state of health and genetics.
Indoor air pollution and poor urban air quality are listed as two of the world's worst toxic pollution problems in the 2008 report. Outdoor air pollution causes 2.1 to 4.21 million dead every year. Collectively, air pollution causes the deaths of approximately 7 million people worldwide each year and is the largest single environmental health risk in the world.
The study The impact of air pollution and climate change on eye health: a global review, published in the Reviews on environmental health, explained: "Climate change has important implications on human health, affecting almost every system in the body.
Multiple studies have raised the possibility of climate change impacting eye health. In this review, we aimed to summarize current literature on the impact of air pollution and climate change on eye health.We performed a search in four different databases, including Medline, Scopus, Cochrane, and Web of Sciences databases.
The search strategy combined terms eye health and environmental/climate changes.The outcome of interest included all eye conditions.The search yielded 2,051 unique articles. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 61 articles were included in this systematic review with data covering 2,620,030 participants.Most studies originated from China, India, South Korea, and USA.Climate change adversely affected different eye conditions, with ocular surface diseases (e.g., conjunctivitis and dry eye) being most affected.
Moreover, higher particulate matter (PM) was the most widely assessed pollutant and was adversely associated with the majority of eye conditions, increasing the burden on patients and healthcare providers. We found a low frequency of publications related to the delivery of eye care and its impact on climate change in countries with high air pollution and climate change burden."