Impact on Eye Health Regarding Gaseous and Particulate Pollutants

Air pollutants are a mixture of thousands of compounds, including ozone (O-3), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particulate matter (PM), all of which are considered to be the most significant compounds from a health provider's viewpoint. The association between air pollutants and human health has been investigated for many decades. These adverse health effects on mankind include acute and chronic impacts. Nearly all the systems of the human body can be affected. There had been substantial evidence pointing out that air pollutants are able to cause serious consequences in human's respiratory and neurological health system (Mannucci et al., 2015; Mannucci and Franchini, 2017; Chen et al., 2020). The retinal tissue and optic nerve are regarded as part of the central nervous system (CNS), because their development are protuberances of an embryological brain (Sebastian, 2010). However, the eyes are often a neglected organ in the area of environmental medicine. Most people anticipate air pollutants' health impacts on the eyes are limited to the eye surface, and simple eye irritation; in fact, air pollutants have a much greater impact on the eyes than we think. In this article, the authors reviewed all the acute and chronic health effects of gaseous and particulate air pollutants on the eyes to highlight the complexity of the relationship of air pollutants and eye health.