In 1959, researchers built a facility near Pretoria, South Africa, to study the airborne route of tuberculosis transmission, replicating an experiment first done in Baltimore. With a detailed schematic of ward rooms, test and control chambers, and room exhaust fans, the researchers proved nature’s deadliest bacterium traveled through the air, meaning infectious people in one part of a building could infect others through a ventilation system.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2), has claimed many victims worldwide due to its high virulence and contagiousness.
The air we breathe serves as a silent vector of antimicrobial resistance, calling for the need to integrate air monitoring into global public health strategies, according to a review by an international team of researchers.
People with greater exposure to fumes and other airborne pollutants are at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to the study.
Air pollution is a familiar environmental health hazard. We know what we’re looking at when brown haze settles over a city, exhaust billows across a busy highway, or a plume rises from a smokestack.
Scientists have identified a distinct biological pattern of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) associated with exposure to airborne toxins, such as wildfire smoke and military burn pits.
