Back off! Stop Air pollution

Air is the most important component for us to live so we should breathe clean air. The air that we breathe carries life to each and everyone of us, but sad to say some areas of our world where the air carries not only life-giving oxygen, but also noxious pollutants that reach unhealthful levels, such as ozone, carbon monoxide, fine particles, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, or lead.

Exercise makes us more vulnerable to health damage from these pollutants but during the workout we should breathe clean air. We breathe more air during exercise or strenuous work. We draw air more deeply into the lungs. And when we exercise heavily, we breathe mostly through the mouth, bypassing the body's first line of defense against pollution, the nose.

Our lungs are among the body's primary points of contact with the outside world. We may drink two liters of liquid each day. We breathe in an estimated 15,000 liters of air, approximately 6 to 10 liters every minute, drawing life-giving oxygen across 600 to 900 square feet of surface area in tiny sacs inside the lung but were not sure that we breathe clean air.

Oxygen is necessary for our muscles to function. In fact, the purpose of exercise training is to improve the body's ability to deliver oxygen. As a result, when we exercise, we may increase our intake of air by as much as ten times our level at rest and if we breathe clean air we may be as very healthy as before.

An endurance athlete can process as much as twenty times the normal intake. Mouth breathing during exercise bypasses the nasal passages, the body's natural air filter. These facts mean that when we exercise in polluted air and were not able to breathe clean air, we increase our contact with the pollutants, and increase our vulnerability to health damage.

The news isn't entirely bad. You can minimize your exposure to air pollution by being aware of polluted areas and by following some simple guidelines. Some guidelines that can assure you to breathe clean air are do train early in the day or in the evening, avoid noontime or afternoon exercise, and avoid strenuous outdoor work, if possible, when ozone smog or other pollution levels are high.

Other guidelines so that you can breathe clean air are do avoid overcrowded streets and rush hour traffic; pollution levels can be high up to 50 feet from the roadway, do make sure teachers, coaches and recreation officials know and aware about air pollution and act accordingly and most important, do be aware and knowledgeable of the quality of the air you breathe so that you can breathe clean air!