A recent study led by researchers at Columbia University′s Mailman School of Public Health and published in eClinicalMedicine, (a member of The Lancet Discovery Science) found a connection between postmenopausal womens deteriorating bones and high levels of air pollution. The effects were particularly evident as nitrous oxides were twice as harmful to the spines lumbar region as normal ageing.

The present study investigated the relationship between air pollution, and bone mineral density, especially in postmenopausal women, and the effects of air pollution mixes on bone outcomes.

The researchers collected data from The Women′s Health Initiative study, which included 161,808 postmenopausal women from various ethnic backgrounds. Using the subjects addresses, they calculated the exposures to air pollution (PM10, NO, NO₂, and SO₂). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to quantify BMD in the whole body, the total hip, the femoral neck, and the lumbar spine at enrolment and follow-up at years one, three, and six.

The study reported that an annual reduction in lumbar spine BMD caused by nitrogen oxides would be 1.22 % which is nearly twice as much as the annual effects of ageing on any of the studied anatomical sites. 

According to experts, the results support the idea that poor air quality may be a risk factor for a bone loss regardless of socioeconomic or demographic considerations. Postmenopausal women will experience less bone deterioration, fewer bone fractures, and a decrease in the financial burden of osteoporosis thanks to improvements in air pollution exposure, especially nitrogen oxides. 

Experts thus concluded that more studies are necessary to identify people more vulnerable to bone injury from air pollution and improve air quality.

(Source: https://theprint.in/health/air-pollution-speeds-bone-loss-from-osteoporosis-research/1389758/)