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MOUTH WASH - benefits, side effects. Best time to use mouth wash?

Oral care is a part of your day to day routine. Brushing your teeth highly recommended to be the first thing you perform after getting up from bed. Whether you believe it or not, MOUTH WASH is an important part of oral hygiene. Dentists all round the world focus on regular use of mouth wash on regular basis. DID YOU KNOW? You might be using mouth wash at the wrong time! Stick till the end of the post in order to know when you should use a mouth wash! & WHY !!! BENEFITS OF MOUTH WASH So far not just one but multiple studies have been conducted to identify the benefits of adding mouth wash as apart of our daily regimen. It has been found that, on adding mouth wash in to the regular routine of tooth brushing and tongue cleaning, reduced bad breathe in 2 to 4 weeks . More benefits was seen when mouth wash for a longer period.   Bad breath can be due to many reasons. It might be due to accumulation of plaque, gingivitis or left over food between the teeth. People using mouth wash were
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Relation betweeen AIR POLLUTION AND COVID-19 ? The fears might be true !!!

Studies conducted in countries like India, USA, England, Italy and China have shown that Air pollution increases the transmission capacity and Covid death rates.

Let us see what country statistics have to say about this relation and how is this possible 



DIRECT ANSWER-
DOES AIR POLLUTION INCREASE COVID TRANSMISSION- probably YES 
DOES AIR POLLUTION INCREASE COVID DEATH RATE- probably YES


AIR POLLUTION is defined as increase of harmful gases in atmosphere.
The industry and automobile industries release gases such as Nitrogen oxides, Sulphur oxides, Carbon dioxides, Dust etc. that are harmful to the human body.

Th dust spread in the environment by such activites in calculated as PARTICULATE MATTER (PM).
PM of size 2.5micrometer (PM2.5) are small and easily enter our lungs. 
Whereas PM of size 10micrometer (PM10) are large and irritate our eyes.


The increase in these PM in the air is now a vehicle for COVID-19 virus to spread and cause more deaths !!!

CAN AIR PULLUTION INCREASE TRANSMISSION OF COVID?

Air pollution could create a suitable environment for the virus. The virus can cling to the particulate matters and can transport to greater distances. It can also from clusters with PM and travel to large distances.

Research studies conducted across the world have shown that places which had more PM in their atmosphere also had more cases of COVID-19 so far.

This is what COUNTRYWISE STATISTICS state-

Strong associations have been noted between PM and COVID disease severity. 

A study from China found that a 10-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 was associated with a 2.24%, 1.76% and 6.94%increase in the daily incidences of COVID cases, respectively.
Not just China, but places such as Italy, California have found a similar trend that as the level of pollutants in the air increase, there is an increase in the COVID cases reported per day !! 
In England, increase in PM2.5 was associated with 12.5% increase in covid cases.
A study in DUTCH found that 1μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 will have 9.4 more COVID cases and 3 more COVID deaths !!

These statistics clearly state the relation between AIR POLLUTION and COVID and how COVID can increase the transmission capacity of COVID virus.
 
Some scientists guessed that decreased pollution levels during lockdown might be a contributing factor for the decrease in covid cases during lockdown. And they even guessed that covid cases might increase after lockdown is lifted and air pollution levels start to rise again which seems to be true for many countries and states around the world.

If we look the other way around, the maximum cases of covid have been reported in some of the countries and states which have poor air quality index indicating the relation between AIR POLLUTION and COVID-19 disease.


CAN AIR POLLUTION  LEAD TO INCREASE IN COVID DEATH RATE ??

Increase in Air pollutants, make lungs more vulnerable to Covid-19 virus. 

The Particulate matters (PM) present as air pollutants, damage our lungs in various ways such as-

  • inflammatory changes     in lung tissue
  • alters the mucociliary function (this causes problem in removing unwanted particles out from lungs)
  • increase the epithelial permiability
  • In a study, it was found that in response to increase in air pollution, there is an increase in ACE receptor. 
    • This ACE receptor also acts a receptor for COVID-19 virus. Thus helping easy atttachment of COVID virus to lungs.
All of these, will not only increase the chance of attachment of covid virus to the lung surfaces but also increase severity of the disease.

A study conducted in China found that for every 10µ/m3 increase in PM2.5 and PM10, the severity increases by 0.24% and 0.26% respectively.

A study in USA found that an increase in NO2 in air was associated with 16.2% increase in death rates !!! An increase of only 1µ/m3 in PM2.5 was associated with 8% increase in COVID death rates.


CONCLUSION-

AIR POLLUTION has strong relation with COVID fatality rate. Hence, the increasing pollution can cause more cases and more deaths!

Make sure you as a citizen do not aggravate this pollution.

Governments of some states in INDIA, have imposed BAN ON CRACKERS and this step should be highly supported by us as citizen. 
Avoid burning crackers even if your state government has not imposed a ban on crackers because this will ultimately affect us or our family members !!

Apart from this, make sure you follow all the safety measures and wear your mask properly.

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SOURCES-
  1. "Air pollution and COVID-19: Is the connect worth its weight?" by Arun Kumar Sharma and Palak Balyan; PMID: 32496243; DOI: 10.4103/ijph.IJPH_466_20
  2. "Association of particulate matter pollution and case fatality rate of COVID-19 in 49 Chinese cities" by Ye Yao and others; PMID: 32592974; DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140396
  3. "Assessing the relationship between surface levels of PM2.5 and PM10 particulate matter impact on COVID-19 in Milan, Italy" by Maria A Zoran and others; PMID: 32512362; DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139825
  4. "Role of the chronic air pollution levels in the Covid-19 outbreak risk in Italy" byDaniele Fattorini and Francesco Regoli; PMID: 32387671; DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114732
  5. "Air Pollution and Covid-19: The Role of Particulate Matter in the Spread and Increase of Covid-19's Morbidity and Mortality" by Silvia Comunian and others ; PMID: 32580440; DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17124487
  6. "Is there an association between the level of ambient air pollution and COVID-19?" by Baoming Wang and others; PMID: 32697597; DOI: 10.1152/ajplung.00244.2020
  7. "Searching for SARS-COV-2 on Particulate Matter: A Possible Early Indicator of COVID-19 Epidemic Recurrence" by Leonardo Setti and others; PMID: 32344853; DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17092986
  8. "The role of air pollution (PM and NO 2) in COVID-19 spread and lethality: A systematic review" by Chiara Copat and others; PMID: 32853663; DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110129
  9. "Correlation between environmental pollution indicators and COVID-19 pandemic: A brief study in Californian context" by Muhammad Farhan Bashir and others; PMID: 32405084; DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109652
  10. "Quick review: air pollution and morbi-mortalityby Covid-19" by Eunice Elizabeth Félix-Arellano and others; PMID: 32526820; DOI: 10.21149/11481
  11. "Urban Air Pollution May Enhance COVID-19 Case-Fatality and Mortality Rates in the United States" by Donghai Liang and others; PMID: 32984861; DOI: 10.1016/j.xinn.2020.100047
  12. "SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 pathogenesis, and exposure to air pollution: What is the connection?" by Brittany Woodby and others; PMID: 33022781; DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14512
  13. "Exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: A nationwide cross-sectional study" by Xiao Wua and others; PMID: 32511651; DOI: 10.1101/2020.04.05.20054502
  14. "Links between air pollution and COVID-19 in England" by Marco Travaglio and others; PMID: 33120349; 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115859
  15. "Air pollution by NO 2 and PM 2.5 explains COVID-19 infection severity by overexpression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in respiratory cells: a review" by Biswaranjan Paital and Pawan Kumar Agrawal ; PMID: 32982622; DOI: 10.1007/s10311-020-01091-w
  16. "Pollution, economic growth, and COVID-19 deaths in India: a machine learning evidence" by Marco Mele and Cosimo Magazzino ; PMID: 32886309; DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-10689-0
  17. "Air Pollution Exposure and Covid-19 in Dutch Municipalities" by Matthew A Cole and others; PMID: 32836849; DOI: 10.1007/s10640-020-00491-4
  18. and many others........
Location: India

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