Exercising in Air Pollution: The Cleanest versus Dirtiest Cities Challenge

Leonardo Alves Pasqua, Mayara Vieira Damasceno, Ramon Cruz, Monique Matsuda, Marco Garcia Martins, Adriano Eduardo Lima-Silva, Mônica Marquezini, Paulo Hilário Nascimento Saldiva and Romulo Bertuzzi
Additional contact information
Leonardo Alves Pasqua: Endurance Performance Research Group (GEDAE-USP), School of Physical Education and Sport, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508030, Brazil
Mayara Vieira Damasceno: Endurance Performance Research Group (GEDAE-USP), School of Physical Education and Sport, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508030, Brazil
Ramon Cruz: Endurance Performance Research Group (GEDAE-USP), School of Physical Education and Sport, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508030, Brazil
Monique Matsuda: Laboratory of Investigation in Ophthalmology (LIM-33), Division of Ophthalmology, University of São Paulo Faculty of Medicine, São Paulo 01246903, Brazil
Marco Garcia Martins: School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Adriano Eduardo Lima-Silva: Human Performance Research Group, Academic Department of Physical Education (DAEFI), Technological Federal University of Parana, Curitiba 80230901, Brazil
Mônica Marquezini: Laboratory of Experimental Air Pollution, Department of Pathology, University of São Paulo Faculty of Medicine, São Paulo 01246903, Brazil
Paulo Hilário Nascimento Saldiva: Laboratory of Experimental Air Pollution, Department of Pathology, University of São Paulo Faculty of Medicine, São Paulo 01246903, Brazil
Romulo Bertuzzi: Endurance Performance Research Group (GEDAE-USP), School of Physical Education and Sport, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508030, Brazil

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-10

Abstract: Background : Aerobic exercise is recommended to improve health. However, the increased ventilation might increase the doses of inhaled air pollutants, negating the health benefits in highly polluted areas. Our objective was to estimate the inhaled dose of air pollutants during two simulated exercise sessions at cleanest and dirtiest cities reported by World Health Organization (WHO) considering air quality. Methods : Minute ventilation data were extracted from laboratory-based exercise of 116 incremental running tests and used to calculate total ventilation of a hypothetical 30-min moderate continuous exercise routine. Afterwards, total ventilation values were combined with particulate matter (PM) data reported by the WHO for the 10 cleanest and 10 dirtiest cities, to calculate inhaled doses and the relative risk of all-cause mortality by exercising in different air pollution concentrations. Findings : The dirtiest cities are located at less developed countries compared to cleanest cities. The inhaled dose of PM 2.5 and PM 10 were significantly higher in the dirtiest cities compared to the cleanest cities at rest and exercise, and significantly higher during exercise compared to the rest at dirtiest cities. The relative risk of all-cause mortality analysis showed that, while exercise in the cleanest cities improved health benefits throughout up to 90 min, there were no further health benefits after 15 min of exercise in the dirtiest cities, and the air pollution health risks surpassed the exercise benefits after 75 min. Interpretation : Our findings suggest that a traditional 30-min of moderate aerobic exercise session might induce inhalation of high levels of pollutants when performed at dirtiest cities. Considering several adverse health effects from air pollutants inhalation, so the results suggest that the air pollution levels of the cities should be taken into account for physical exercise recommendations.

Keywords: exercise; air pollution; health; environmental justice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/7/1502/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/7/1502/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:7:p:1502-:d:158302

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().