[Importance of atmospheric air pollution in the development of diseases]

Our knowledge on the effects of air pollution to health goes back up to antiquity. Industrialization with its consequences has multiplied the problem, the effects of air pollution to the lungs gaining special significance. The research of the relations is intricate because no simple dose-response relations are existing between environmental influence and population. The great number of harmful factors and of their changing concentration is faced the different susceptibility of the population and the range of response within different population groups and, finally, the multifactorial pathogenesis of chronic diseases, mentioned for assessing the hazards of air pollution. There is distinguished between local and systemic effects of air pollution to the respiratory tract. Chronic respiratory diseases and bronchial carcinoma are discussed as local effects whereas poisonings by carbon monoxide, lead and cadmium (over the human air tract) represent systemic effects.