The Colorado Front Range violated Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards 40 days in the summer of 2024, continuing a trend of rising ozone levels over the past several years.
The region is susceptible to high pollution due to a confluence of industry and vehicle emissions, geography, weather patterns and the effects of climate change. Climbing levels of toxic ozone – as well as the perennial threat of wildfires across the West – pose increasing public health risks of respiratory and cardiovascular disease.
Colorado experiences a “double whammy” from industrial and vehicle pollutants as well as forest fires, said Fernando Holguin, MD, professor of medicine and pediatrics in the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine and pulmonary division head at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
On this episode of Health Science Radio, Holguin talks about what happens when people are exposed to fine particulate matter, how socioeconomic disparities contribute to greater exposure to air pollution, coexisting conditions that put people at higher risk of being affected by air pollution, the relationship between the gut microbiome and lung health, and the ways climate change impacts cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
Given Coloradans’ fondness for outdoor recreation, Holguin also discusses the potential health risks of exercising when the air quality metric moves into the yellow or red zones.
“You and I talking in this room are breathing in and out six to eight to 10 liters per minute of air. When you go and exercise, depending on how fit you are, you could be breathing in 30, 40 liters per minute,” Holguin said.
“So that by itself means you’re getting exposed to a much, much larger concentration of pollutants just by how much air you’re breathing in and out of your lungs… There are studies coming out from California – from 12 communities – showing, particularly in younger kids, that high-intensity exercise during high-ozone days was associated with increased risk for developing asthma.”
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