Short-term air pollution can aggravate the medical conditions of individuals with asthma and emphysema. Long-term health effects can include chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys. Continual exposure to air pollution affects the lungs of growing children and may aggravate or complicate medical conditions in the elderly. It is estimated that half a million people die prematurely every year in the United States as a result of smoking cigarettes. Research into the health effects of air pollution is ongoing.
Medical conditions arising from air pollution can be very expensive.
Healthcare costs, lost productivity in the workplace, and human welfare impacts cost billions of dollars each year. Additional information on the health effects of air pollution is available from the Natural Resources Defense Council .