The first such diagnosis in Poland. Smog is the official cause of an 11-year-old boy’s illness

Much has been said about the harmful effects of smog. And while we know it negatively impacts our health, there hasn’t been any “tangible” evidence of it in the form of a medical diagnosis so far. Until now. For the first time, a disease caused by air pollution has been officially diagnosed in Poland.

Guilty smog - the first such diagnosis in Poland

For the first time in our country smog has been identified as a major cause of health problems. The case concerns a boy from Warsaw and was described on the SmogLab portal. The medical record of an 11-year-old child states “suspected bronchial hyperreactivity/allergy due to air pollution.” And while he is certainly not the only one suffering from smog-related illnesses, he was probably the first patient to receive such a diagnosis.

The boy was previously suspected of various diseases, but the diagnoses were constantly made incorrectly. The child had to deal with coughing fits, shortness of breath, frequent visits to the clinic. All this led to school absences and learning difficulties. Health problems caused him a lot of suffering. The boy’s parents said that the child’s shortness of breath intensified when they left the city with their son. This was due to even worse air quality there than in Warsaw, because “outside it smelled of burning.” It is the quality of the air that determines when and how often a boy gets sick. Child’s illnesses clearly increased in the heating season

Air quality affects your child’s health

When heavy smog swept over Poland in 2017, the boy’s ailments also became more troublesome. Then his parents again turned to the doctors for help. “During one of them, a doctor with complete helplessness in her voice told me that this would be the case during this period, because Poland works on coal. Such sacred things as the ethos of mining have not been touched,” the child’s mother said in an interview with the SmogLab portal. The woman also noted that the generation of doctors treating children did not learn about smog or the negative health effects of this phenomenon in their studies. “When, among other things, in Zabrze, a pool of white dust, people die of lung cancer, some doctors say that we will do nothing in this situation,” adds the boy’s mother.
In turn, Veronica Michalak, director of HEAL Polska, also believes that “medics of different specialties simply do not see the connection between one and the other.” He adds that often they just don’t know how unhealthy smog is.

Smog as the official cause of the disease

Doctors had previously suspected allergies as the cause of the 11-year-old boy’s illness, but allergy tests ruled out that possibility. As a result, the boy was sent to the hospital.

The pediatrician we met this time gave us a referral to a pulmonary hospital. Through the referral, she made a direct connection between Maciek’s (not her real name) health problems and Warsaw’s air quality, the boy’s mother says.

The child underwent various examinations: spirometry, allergomarkers and lung x-rays. After a long struggle of parents and additional tests, it turned out that the boy was sick the initial phase of asthma caused by smog.

“We only see a correlation between the severity of infection symptoms in the fall and the exacerbation of previously diagnosed diseases, such as bronchial asthma. As pediatricians, we are seeing an increase in respiratory tract infections and a worsening of asthma symptoms with increased smog. Spirometry is an objective method for monitoring the deterioration of the functioning of the respiratory system, which I do not perform in my medical practice,” explained Dr. Agnieszka Turlinska, a pediatrician who diagnosed the boy as a result of air pollution, in an interview. with SmogLab.

Why is it so difficult to diagnose?

What is the reason for the difficulty in diagnosing diseases caused by smog, as was the case with 11-year-old Maciek? In their opinion, the difficulties faced by doctors are due to the fact that there are no objective methods for studying whether smog has such a significant impact on the course of the disease. Thus, diagnostics can be a breakthrough moment and lead to a better understanding of the impact of smog on health.