Air pollution as bad as smoking a cigarette pack per day
New York, Aug 14: Researchers have found that ozone air pollution which is increasing with climate change can accelerate lung disease as much as that by smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
"We were surprised to see how strong air pollution''s impact was on the progression of emphysema on lung scans, in the same league as the effects of cigarette smoking, which is by far the best-known cause of emphysema," said Joel Kaufman, Professor at the University of Washington.
If you live in areas with increased levels of ozone, researchers found an increase in emphysema roughly the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 29 years.
The study, published in the journal JAMA, demonstrates an association between long-term exposure to major air pollutants - especially ozone - with an increase in emphysema seen on lung scans.
Emphysema is a condition in which destruction of lung tissue leads to wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath and increases the risk of death.
The results are based on an extensive, 18-year study involving more than 7,000 people and a detailed examination of the air pollution they encountered between 2000 and 2018 in six metropolitan regions across the US. The participants were drawn from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Air and Lung studies.
"To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study to assess the association between long-term exposure to air pollutants and progression of percent emphysema in a large, community-based, multi-ethnic cohort," said Meng Wang, Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo.
While most of the airborne pollutants are in decline because of successful efforts to reduce them, ozone has been increasing, researchers said. Ground-level ozone is mostly produced when ultraviolet light reacts with pollutants from fossil fuels.
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I-T Department sends notice to actor-director Prithviraj Sukumaran over co-produced films
New Delhi: The Income Tax (I-T) Department has sent a notice to actor and director Prithviraj Sukumaran asking for more details about the money he earned from some films he co-produced. The notice was reportedly served during the last week of March by the I-T office in Kochi. He has been asked to respond by the end of April.
The department is seeking clarification on the income from a few movies Prithviraj was involved in as a co-producer. This comes at a time when the actor has been receiving criticism from right-wing groups over what seemed to be references to the 2002 Gujarat riots in his latest film L2: Empuraan, starring Mohanlal, which released on March 27.
On April 4, 2025, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out searches at the offices of Gokulam Gopalan, a Kerala-based businessman and one of the producers of L2: Empuraan, along with a few others. These searches were part of an investigation into alleged violations of foreign exchange rules.
The I-T notice to Prithviraj is believed to be linked to an ongoing investigation that began in December 2022 into suspected tax evasion within the Malayalam film industry.
At the time, tax officials had raided the homes and offices of several producers, including Antony Perumbavoor, Anto Joseph, and Listin Stephen, over concerns about unreported income, cash deals, and overseas investments. Prithviraj’s premises were also searched during that operation.
