New data show that Taiwan's air pollution is going down, but may be causing lung, heart and brain disease, especially among the elderly.
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00:00 Smog. It's a familiar sight to those living in Taiwan's major cities,
00:04 and new data shows the health concerns go beyond just your lungs.
00:07 The respiratory effects of pollution have long been known,
00:10 but exposure to particle matter, such as PM2.5,
00:13 can also affect other parts of the body, especially among older people.
00:18 So, for patients with Alzheimer's,
00:20 we must prevent PM2.5 from spreading to the upper respiratory tract.
00:25 Otherwise, it will cause a heart attack
00:28 due to the slow growth of the heart.
00:32 Higher levels of air pollution also increase the risk
00:35 of degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer's.
00:38 The risk of Alzheimer's disease is four times
00:41 compared with those with very low levels.
00:44 And for the vascular dementia, it's like two times higher.
00:48 The report from Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes
00:52 says there's been a downward trend in the country's air pollution levels.
00:56 But outside groups paint a less rosy picture.
00:59 Air quality tracker IQ Air says Taiwan has the third worst air quality in East Asia,
01:04 and in most of Taiwan's major cities, pollution levels are between two and five
01:07 times higher than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization.
01:11 With Taiwan's population rapidly aging,
01:14 pollution-related health issues could cause problems for the whole country.
01:18 Taiwan will go to super age society very soon.
01:22 So that means we have a lot of very high portion of population
01:28 they are susceptible to the air pollutant.
01:31 So the health care burden will definitely increase a lot.
01:36 The government aims to reduce air pollution to the level recommended
01:40 in the UN's sustainable development goals.
01:43 But faced with a demographic dilemma,
01:45 Taiwan's window for meeting those goals in time to avoid a crisis
01:48 is quickly running out.
01:50 Ryan Wu and Chris Gorin for Taiwan Plus.
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