MIAMI, Fla. – The American Lung Association’s annual State of The Air report has some mixed news for South Florida.
While overall the metro area is facing fewer days of poor air quality, the report found that short-term spikes in particle pollution have increased over a three-year period.
“What’s interesting is a lot of people would guess that could affect your respiratory health, people with asthma, people with chronic lung disease, COPD, emphysema, bronchitis but it’s clearer and clearer and it can affect cardiovascular health also,” said Dr. Glenn Singer, a pulmonologist with Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
South Florida’s heavy traffic, combined with sunlight, also leads to ground-level ozone pollution which impacts respiratory and cardiovascular health as well.
Organ donation awareness
April is designated National Donate Life Month in an effort to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.
While the majority of organs come from deceased donors, a living donor can also be an option for people needing a life-saving transplant.
“Living donor transplant is a method of doing a transplant where we use organs from a healthy living person
But we only take part of the organ. So let’s say for a kidney transplant, we only take one of the kidneys. And for liver transplant, we split the liver and use part of the liver,” said Dr. David Kwon with the Cleveland Clinic.
Data collected in long-term follow-ups revealed that more than half of living donors reported an improvement in their psychological well-being after donation.