Air Health Our Health

Allergies can be miserable, and like other threats in the air, can often be invisible but cause a great deal of misery! For this episode, Dr Sharmilee Nyenhuis from the University of Chicago teaches us about pollen, how it affects us, and how it is changing. Listen and learn! Know your own allergies, and make a plan for that pollen season- avoiding peak pollen times outdoors, rinsing pollen off your face and maybe your sinuses when you come indoors, keeping windows closed and moreCheck out the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America Home Checklist for AllergiesFind a pollen counter that actually counts pollen in real time, not based on historic controls. With climate change, history doesn’t predict what may be going on outdoorsThe time is always right to run a HEPA filter- if it’s not sweeping the pollen from your air, it will be cleaning out pollution or catching viruses. Share this episode with a friend who suffers from allergies.For more on the interaction of climate change and plant biology, listen to the “Science over Politics” episode from Season One. Consider a donation to the American Lung Association, who works hard to help those with asthma and allergies breathe better-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For more information go to airhealthourhealth.org.Follow on Facebook and Instagram. Pollen image by Alex Jones on Unsplash

Dr. Georgia Lagoudas, MIT-trained biological engineer and Brown University senior fellow who leads the Clean Indoor Air Initiative. She explains how indoor CO2 from exhaled breath signals occupancy and can impair cognition. Conversation covers safe CO2 targets, special rules for schools and planes, cheap CO2 and PM2.5 sensors, filtration strategies, and policy moves to measure and improve indoor air.

We all need to eat. We also all need to breathe clean air. Around the country and the world the practice of agricultural burning is used to remove crop residue. This can often be the most efficient or cost-effective from the perspective of the individual farmer, but can also affect the people living and working in the area.   Dr Laura C. Myers, M.D., M.P.H  is a lung and ICU doctor at Kaiser Permanente who researches people with lung diseases and how air quality and heat can affect them. Join me to learn about agricultural burning and its health impact. We also explore what can be done to minimize this impact while ensuring both a healthy food production and healthy communities. To Do-Where possible, encourage your community to support farmers in alternatives to biomass burning through regenerative agricultural practices. Many agricultural universities across the US are studying this, and supporting up front costs for farmers may help improve their soil, profit margins and keep surrounding communities healthier. Make sure you have clean air indoors- no smoking, vaping, open flames, etc. You can learn more from the “Clean Air Gift Guide” episode from earlier this season.Spread the word about the importance of clean air indoors- reducing pollution from gas stoves, ensuring good air filtration and more can help improve resilience when agricultural burning is occurring. If you or a loved one has asthma or airway disease, make sure they know about clean air resources. Sign up for air quality alerts in your area.Consider a donation to the American Lung Association, which helps patients with airway disease understand the air they breathe and works for clean air for all.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For more information go to airhealthourhealth.org.Follow on Facebook and Instagram. Photo by Ferdinand Stöhr on Unsplash

We now have more information about how e-cigarettes can affect adolescents. It is tragic, because kids had really gotten the message that cigarettes are bad for you, but candy-flavored e-cigarettes seem safer and lure them in. Kids who start with e-cigs are more likely to become smokers, use other addictive substances, have depression and attempt suicide. I recorded a Breathe Easy podcast for the American Thoracic Society on this topic with Dr. Laura E. Crotty Alexander, a lung doctor who studies e-cigarettes in the lab. Listen and learn about how e-cigarettes can affect youth in your community and what can be done to help them break free and ideally never get addicted in the first place.What can you do?Learn about how a comprehensive flavor ban may help your state or community with the episode Breaking States Free from Flavored Tobacco & Why it Matters. PostIf an adolescent in your life vapes, learn how to talk to them about it in an evidence-based way with the Do the Vape Talk- episode which includes expertise from the American Lung Association, PostFinally, consider a donation to the American Thoracic Society, whose Tobacco Action Committee works hard to protect Americans from the tobacco industry and who recorded the Breathe Easy podcast that is the foundation of this episode.Studies covered in podGolder S et al. Vaping and harm in young people: umbrella review Tobacco Control Aug 2025. Bauer SE et al. Treatment of Nicotine Use in Adolescents Under 18 Years of Age: An Official American Thoracic Society Clinical Practice Guideline. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2025 

Happy Holidays! This episode is a short and sweet guide to those who want to give the gift of clean air this holiday season- a gift that keeps on giving!To Do-Go to AirHealthOurHealth.org/GiftGuide to share clean air gift ideas with friends and loved ones!To learn more about the health impacts of gas stoves, listen to The Fire Inside episode.To learn more about gas-powered lawn equipment, listen to The Yards on Fire episode.HEPA filters and other technologies are covered in multiple episodes, including Our Health and Wildfire Season and The Air Inside When the Smoke Is Outside.To find out what your state, county, or city could do for clean air for all, listen to last season’s episode: Bypassing Toxic Politics: Clean Air and Climate Action at the State and Local Level.Finally, consider a gift to your local food bank. It is so important during the holidays to make sure everyone has enough to celebrate. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For more information go to airhealthourhealth.org.Follow on Facebook and Instagram. Image Art by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

Kids are our future and have the most to lose from the changing climate affecting our planet. However, they also have the most to gain from us taking action now to understand how climate change impacts the health of our children and what we can do. Today I am joined by two amazing pediatric lung doctors and mothers. Dr Anne Coates is the mother of four and a pediatric pulmonologist in the Maine Medical Partners Pediatric Specialty Care practice and teaches the next generation training in pediatric medicine at Maine Medical Center and is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Tufts University School of Medicine Dr. Christy Sadreameli has two boys and is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she co-directs the Childhood Interstitial and Diffuse Lung Disease and Immunologic Disorders Clinic.  What can you do?– You can learn more about how to keep your family healthy during things like wildfire events from  "Our Health in Wildfire Season" episode– You can learn about how pollen is changing with climate change from the episode “Science over Politics.”- Learn about heat events and how to stay safe from the “Heat Kills” episode with Professor Ollie Jay  – Learn what you can do from the "Clean air and Climate Advocacy for Busy People" episode or the "”Bypass Toxic Politics” episode or “Your Little Grain of Sand” with Mom’s Clean Air Force- Finally, consider a donation to the American Lung Association, who is working for clean air and a stable climate for all our kids.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For more information go to airhealthourhealth.org.Follow on Facebook and Instagram. Podcast Image by Heike Mintel on Unsplash

Research can seem like something that happens far off, but doesn’t affect us on a daily basis. Nothing could be further from the truth! How does what we breathe cause disease? Can we intervene? If I have to choose, should I buy an air purifier or an air conditioner? How much does that help? What about if I have a family member with lung disease? Does it matter if I’m healthy? We need publicly funded research to answer questions like these that are of interest to the public, not only research of interest to private industry. We also need people who have the skills to answer those questions and avoid pitfalls and bias that can plague bad research. Join me today to learn how changes at the National Institutes of Health affect all of us and what we can do!Dr Mary Rice, MD, MPH is a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician and the director of the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. She is the chair of the Environmental, Occupational and Population Health Assembly of the American Thoracic Society and leads the environmental health research program of the American Lung Association Lung Health Cohort and is an NIH funded researcher. To DoSpeak up about the value of research- contact your elected officials about the importance of the NIH and publicly funded researchIf you or a loved one suffers from a chronic disease, share how important it is to fund research into disease prevention and treatment. Find the organization that advocates for those with that illness and work with them to raise the issue to decision makers and funders.If you work in research, share your story and help people understand how the scientific method, though not perfect, is one of our best tools in moving human health forwardLearn more about the cuts from a former program officer at the NIH as well as a pediatric pulmonologist that was recorded at the ATS meeting in 2025 for the ATS Breathe Easy podcastIf you work in healthcare, get engaged with your professional societies to advocate for the importance of research.Consider a donation to the American Thoracic Society, which also funds research to help the world breathe-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Visit blog post for more information, or go to airhealthourhealth.org.Follow and comment on Facebook page and Instagram. Record a question or comment on the podcast site or send an e-mail via the website. 

I see the worst case scenarios as an ICU doctor- today's episode introduces you to someone whose fruity nicotine-containing e-cigarette landed her on something called ECMO. It is a scary story of ICU survivorship and also an incredible one of resilience. Petrea McKeithen is a young mother and ECMO survivor and has generously shared her story with the American Lung Association and now with you!So what can you do?Find out if your county or state has a comprehensive flavored tobacco ban. You can learn more about why this is important in the “Breaking States Free from Flavored Tobacco and Why it Matters” episode from Season Five. Look back through the Air Health Our Health podcast feed for a host of episodes on the history and chemistry of menthol, of flavoring chemicals, of targeting kids, etc. Look up who represents you in your county or state and reach out to them asking about what they intend to do to make flavored tobacco harder to obtain.If you or someone you know has gone through a stay in the ICU, learn more about potential after effects at ICUdelirium.org and how you can support them both during their ICU stay and afterwards.Consider a donation to the American Lung Association or the Campaign for Tobacco Free kidsAlso, this podcast is a labor of love. You don’t hear ads, I don’t make any money on it. It exists to spread the word about steps people can take to help keep their communities healthy. You can help by spreading the word. Please consider leaving the podcast a 5 star review wherever you listen to help spread the word. Please also share an episode you found helpful with a friend or on social media. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Visit blog post for more information, or go to airhealthourhealth.org.Follow and comment on Facebook page and Instagram. Record a question or comment on the podcast site or send an e-mail via the website.  

Welcome to the last Air Health Our Health podcast of Season Five. This is a collaboration with the American Thoracic Society’s Breathe Easy podcast, of which I am a new host. We produce over 450 million tons of plastic each year, the majority of which accumulates in the environment- it is vital to understand how that impacts us. For today’s episode, I interview Dr Adam Soloff, PhD a researcher at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center of the University of Pittsburgh in the department of cardiothoracic surgery and immunology. He describes himself as the “Lorax of the Thorax” and walks us through research on how ever-present microplastics that we inhale can seed tissues throughout the body and what that does to our immune system. So what can you do? Look at where you are using plastic in your own life and see if you can replace it with a healthier option. Few options here.Find out what can be done to reduce plastics in your community. Look up your members of Congress and share with them your concern about dismantling important science-based support for health at the federal level, whether the NIH, EPA, CDC, VA and more. Then, look up your city councilperson and state legislator to ask what they are doing to help prevent plastic pollution and find out what you can do to help.Finally, be sure to enjoy the beautiful planet on which we all live and take at least one step to keep it beautiful and healthy. Find what you can do and do it. None of us have to do everything, but we can all do something.

Summer is coming, and with it rising temperatures. It is important to know how to stay safe in heat, and this is especially important for people who work outdoors. Today, I am joined by Dr. Maeve MacMurdo, an occupational and environmental pulmonologist at the Cleveland Clinic. We discuss how heat affects the body, how to recognize heat illness, and what we can do to help people stay safe in heat.Learn more about heat from episode “Heat Kills” with Ollie Jay and strategies for summer, including how to avoid overheating and not over cooling your home in a potentially risky wayLearn more about ozone from the “True Cost of Ozone episode” with Dr. NassikasEnsure where you work has a heat standard- even if you work indoors, know what the plan for power outages, and moreFind out whether there are occupational standards in your county or state to protect your outdoor workers- consider advocating for one if you don’t have oneCheck out heat.gov to learn more and have additional resourcesYou can review ATS comments to OSHA by Dr McMurdo at this link or at the post for the episode at airhealthourhealth.org.Episode Photo by Nur Iman on Unsplash