Effects of Air Pollution While Being Physically Active, the Potential for Modification: A Review of the Literature

摘要

Air pollution is known to be associated with morbidity and mortality, while physical activity is consistently encouraged due to its health benefits. It is well established that exercise increases the dose of environmental pollutants that enter the lungs. However, it is not clear if the risk of this increased dose outweighs the benefits of exercise. There is a lack of consensus regarding recommendations for exercising outdoors when air pollution is high. To help understand this complex issue, we reviewed the peer-reviewed literature related to exposure to air pollution modified by physical activity separated into two areas of interest: (1) the acute impacts of air pollution while exercising, and (2) the impacts of air pollution among those who routinely engage in physical activity. This review focuses on the first area. Articles were identified through PubMed, Science Direct, ProQuest Agricultural & Environmental Science Database searches on terms encompassing air pollution and exercise/physical activity (n=334). After screening, 30 papers were included and largely occurred in North America (n=15) and Europe (n=12), while the remaining papers (n=3) occurred in either Asia, Africa, or Australia. Papers were included in the review if they contained (1) exercising in clean air, (2) exercising in polluted air, (3) rest in clean air, and (4) rest in polluted air. The ongoing review of these papers has yielded mixed results. We have identified four studies that conclude that physical activity decreases the detrimental impact of air pollution, similarly two studies found air pollution negates the beneficial effects of physical activity. However, six studies found physical activity and air pollution did not interact, while eight studies found physical activity only increases exposure to air pollutants. The remaining studies (n=10) have not met the criteria for our review. This abstract does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.