"Air Pollution Might Be The New Lead" - Nicole Wetsman

About 92 percent of the world’s population, and more than half the people in the United States, live in areas with unhealthy air quality. The World Health Organization calls air pollution the world’s largest single environmental health risk, and it leads to the premature deaths of millions annually. There’s a lot we don’t know about the mechanisms behind the effects of air pollution. Pollution is made of nitrogen dioxide and ozone, and it might also have microscopic pieces of metals like zinc, tin, or even lead. The composition can change neighborhood to neighborhood, block to block, and hour to hour. “The toxicity is different depending on the particular soup that you’re in,” said Rosalind Wright, MD, dean of translational biomedical research and professor of pediatrics, environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. One of the main challenges faced by air pollution researchers, then, is untangling the types of particles that could be the most dangerous from those that might be more benign. “Any step in that direction, looking at some components versus others, is going to be valuable,” Dr. Wright said.

- Rosalind J. Wright, MD, Dean, Translational Biomedical Research,  Horace W. Goldsmith Professorship, Children’s Health Research, Professor, Pediatrics, Critical Care, Environmental Medicine, Public Health, Pulmonary, and Sleep Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 

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