4 Health Hazards Urban Residents Face

How to main­tain health in a big city, with its dust and smog, food addi­tives and non-nat­ur­al dyes?

There is lit­tle we can do about bad ecol­o­gy, pol­lut­ed air and oth­er harm­ful man­i­fes­ta­tions of the metrop­o­lis. How­ev­er, we can do as much as we can to reduce harm and pre­serve health. Save our tips!

Pho­to: Bur­da-media

This mix­ture of smoke, fog and dust is present in one way or anoth­er over any major city. In addi­tion to exhaust gas­es from cars and emis­sions from enter­pris­es, nat­ur­al sources, such as for­est fires, also “con­tribute” to it. Such a “heavy atmos­phere” is most dan­ger­ous for chil­dren, the elder­ly, aller­gy suf­fer­ers and those suf­fer­ing from car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases.
Answer. Try not to be out­side for too long in the ear­ly morn­ing: at this time, the con­cen­tra­tion of harm­ful sub­stances in the air is as high as pos­si­ble. Spend as much time as pos­si­ble out­side the city — go to nature at least on week­ends. If there was a seri­ous fire near the city, it is worth using a gauze ban­dage. To reduce the tox­ic effects of smog, take a mul­ti­vi­t­a­min, drink plen­ty of flu­ids, and flush your nose and throat.

Pho­to: Bur­da-media

In order to improve the taste and extend the shelf life of prod­ucts, man­u­fac­tur­ers are very active­ly using food addi­tives. Sub­stances indi­cat­ed by the “E” sign and num­bers are in any prod­uct, and some of them are com­plete­ly harm­less, most of them are allowed, but care is need­ed, and some of them are unsafe for health. For exam­ple, the taste enhancer monosodi­um glu­ta­mate E‑621 “hooks” us on the prod­uct, mak­ing its taste more sat­u­rat­ed. And sodi­um nitrite E‑250, which gives a pleas­ant pink tint to meat or fish prod­ucts, can be poi­soned.
Answer. Of course, it is dif­fi­cult to remem­ber all the num­bers. How­ev­er, smart­phone apps already exist that allow you to scan a prod­uct and deter­mine which of its ingre­di­ents dif­fer in what effect. If a spe­cif­ic prod­uct is not in the “base”, then you can read the prop­er­ties of the addi­tives in the dic­tio­nary that the pro­gram is equipped with.

Pho­to: Bur­da-media

To give flex­i­bil­i­ty and elas­tic­i­ty to plas­tic prod­ucts, harm­ful phtha­lates are used. They seri­ous­ly dis­rupt the hor­mon­al bal­ance and are car­cino­gens. These sub­stances are espe­cial­ly harm­ful to the del­i­cate chil­dren’s body.
Answer. When buy­ing a toy, ask the sell­er for a qual­i­ty cer­tifi­cate and a san­i­tary cer­tifi­cate: you must make sure that the prod­uct is tox­ic for your child.

Pho­to: Bur­da-media

If the sell­er fer­vent­ly assures you that this blouse “does­n’t shed at all,” this is a wake-up call. Indeed, in the man­u­fac­ture of par­tic­u­lar­ly sta­ble tex­tile paints, some­times not at all safe chem­i­cals are used. Espe­cial­ly “famous” ani­line dyes with car­cino­genic prop­er­ties. In Euro­pean coun­tries and Amer­i­ca, they are banned — how­ev­er, unfor­tu­nate­ly, the bans do not apply to Asian coun­tries …
Answer. Buy clothes in large stores. Even if you want to save mon­ey, it is bet­ter to wait for a sale than to buy things in the mar­kets. Before putting on a new item, wash it to wash off harm­ful sub­stances. For exam­ple, a solu­tion based on formalde­hyde resins that pre­vents the fab­ric from wrin­kling, or sub­stances that give bright­ness — as well as dust and dirt from the ware­house and the “con­se­quences” of try­ing on clothes by oth­er peo­ple before you.

Edi­tor’s advice. House­hold dust with dust mites and molds are com­mon in the air of our apart­ments and offices. We large­ly “owe” them to the spread of aller­gies, increased fatigue and fre­quent headaches. There­fore, ven­ti­late the rooms in which you live and work more often, do wet clean­ing and do not for­get to wash the trash can.

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The opin­ion of the edi­tors may not coin­cide with the opin­ion of the author of the arti­cle.