Low Grade Chronic Inflammation and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia as a Parameter of Air Pollution
Authors: Ruffolo Pasquale , Acquaviva Osvaldo , Panunzio Manuela , Paraggio Alessandra , Trifuoggi Marco 
Published: January 2025

Environmental pollution is not only the cause of environmental degradation, but also represents a danger to our health. Industrialization and technological progress have brought prosperity social and economic but have caused an increase in toxic waste coming from the petrochemical, chemical and plastic manufacturing industries, causing pollution of the air we breathe, of the soil, of the subsoil, of the rivers, of the lakes, of the sea as well as of our water resources. Unfortunately, in these polluted sites an increase in the incidence of pathologies is observed Environmental impact [1,13], among which chronic-degenerative diseases are particularly relevant [2]. The polluting agents present in the environment in which we live are the cause of slow and progressive processes inflammation in our body, not only of the respiratory tract but also of various "target" organs. This process is called mild chronic inflammation. A clinical syndrome that is not easy to diagnose, because it is often correlated with various infections viral or bacterial, or frequently associated with diabetes, heart disease and obesity and often precedes tumors or autoimmune diseases. Most affected are the inhabitants who live in environments polluted by poles industrial plants that release multiple toxic substances (cancerous gases) into the surrounding air, or in cities with areas ports where they attract both cruise ships and merchant ships and with particularly airports trafficked [1,13]. This inflammatory process is acute by the clumsy and excessive use of drugs anti-inflammatories and antibiotics, which in addition to masking any preventive symptoms of serious diseases, they accentuate the bioaccumulation mechanisms in some organs. An example of the gravity of the combinations of environmental pollution and chronic low-grade inflammation (L.G.C.I.) in polluted sites and areas ports and airports is due to the increase in various neoplastic blood diseases. These pathologies are caused by an uncontrolled proliferation of blood cell precursors as occurs in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in children, where pluripotent stem cells undergo malignant transformations causing clonal myeloproliferation with subsequent hyperproduction and spread of immature cells that accumulate in the blood, bone marrow and in some organs. Our aim is to highlight a correlation between environmental pollution, in particular atmospheric pollution, and the incidence of neoplastic blood diseases, to place it as a paradigm for the identification of areas at high risk of air pollution (cancer gas) [13]. It is no coincidence that leukemic neoplastic diseases they are mostly present in those inhabited centers equipped with ports and airports as well as industrial hubs in the suburbs that release cancer gases and ionizing radiation into the atmosphere [1,13]. The increase in the incidence of Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children should be considered as a benchmark of severe form of air pollution in an inhabited place, i.e. an increase in leukemia is found acute lymphoblastic infections in inhabited centers with ports where merchant ships and cruise ships dock, with an airport and often with industrial centers on the outskirts [1,13].