The Surprising Symptoms of Poor Air Quality: Itchy Eyes, Headaches, Chest Pain, and More

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Itchy eyes, itchy throat and cough may not be surprising if you experience it in an environment with polluted air. Poor air quality can also cause other unexpected symptoms, such as chest pain, headache and dizziness.

“We encourage people to immediately go to medical personnel, if they experience chest pain or tightness,” said a critical care medicine doctor at Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York, United States, Dr. Gregory Wu.

Persistent headaches require immediate medical attention, especially if a person does not normally get headaches or the headaches are worse than usual. Meanwhile, chest pain can be an indicator of something more serious, such as a heart attack.

It remains unclear why poor air quality increases heart attack risk. According to the American Heart Association, that’s because fire smoke contains fine particles that can constrict blood vessels and increase blood pressure, which can potentially cause heart attacks.

A study published in 2020 at Journal of American Heart Association found that exposure to heavy smoke during wildfires increased the risk of heart attack outside the hospital by up to 70 percent. Headaches or dizziness may be a direct result of inhaling pollution, such as carbon monoxide, from smoke.

People may also faint or experience nausea from inhaling toxic fumes. According to a pulmonologist from the American Lung Association, Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, sleep can also be disrupted due to exposure to smoke from a fire. The fine particles can enter the bloodstream, causing inflammation in and around the brain and other parts of the body, making it hard to rest.

“Even if we are healthy, we may feel some effects,” he said.

Parents should also pay attention to how their children feel. Young children are known to become irritable or more moody due to exposure to poor air quality, including from fire smoke.

“The biological reasons are not fully understood. But if children are exposed to things that are toxic, they tend to be more irritable. It’s the same thing seen with respiratory viruses. Maybe they can’t breathe as well or maybe they have shortness of breath,” he said.

A professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Maria Wei, said that fire smoke can also cause skin problems. What does it look like?