With cars and trucks traveling down roads and freeways, vast grass and forest fires burning during the summers, and factories releasing pollutants into the air on a daily basis, the quality of air is decreasing at a rapid rate. This is extremely damaging to the respiratory systems of people living on our planet and is diminishing the health of individuals.
Doctors and Physicians always receive the question ‘What should I do to protect my lungs during poor air quality days?’. The commonality of this question influenced members of the Intermountain Medical Center team, based in Salt Lake City, to conduct a study regarding the effectiveness of HEPA air filters in homes. Throughout the past week I investigated an article, discovering information about how the study was conducted and the results it produced.
Members of the Intermountain Medical Center team began the article by presenting a description of how their study was conducted. They explained how researchers recorded the air quality in homes of patients with respiratory problems over the span of 12 weeks. According to the article, “They found that the HEPA filters reduced fine particulate matter by 55 percent and particulate pollution outside coming inside was reduced by 23 percent.” This statistic clearly demonstrates how effective the HEPA filters are in helping clean the air. The authors also explained what fine-particulate matter was and how it can “…lead to respiratory problems, heart attacks, or exacerbate symptoms of people who already have respiratory problems like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma [when inhaled].” By showing how harmful inhaling fine-particulate matter can be to the health of an individual, the authors allowed the audience to see how important the effectiveness of HEPA filters truly is.
Near the closing of the article, the authors pointed out that their “next steps will be to look at whether the HEPA filter cleans the indoor air enough to help alleviate symptoms in patients with COPD or asthma…” This research will apply directly to the medical field and could potentially help treat patients with respiratory diseases. The article also emphasized that everyone should make an effort to improve the air quality within their communities. They could accomplish this by taking part in spare the air days, riding bikes and walking instead of driving, and by carpooling to school or work.
Overall, I believe the study the article elaborated on was very interesting as it showed potential for helping treat patients suffering from respiratory problems in the near future. I am eager to see how the Intermountain Medical Center will decide to continue with their study.
This article relates to my developing understanding of the topic of health and medicine as it is a great example of how a study can be conducted and produce results that can be directly applied to the medical field. This is significant because I now have a better understanding of how new discoveries are made within the field of medicine, as well as how they can help to improve the health of individuals.
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