For this assignment, each member of your group will be investigating a different cardiovascular or respiratory disease. Each person in your group should focus on a different disease, so before you write your post, check to see which diseases have been taken.

• Ischemic heart disease

• Cerebrovascular disease

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

• Pneumonia

Be sure to write the answers to the following questions in your own words. Please also cite all sources fully, including in-text citations and a full reference list at the end, for full credit.

Post Requirements

This assignment requires one post. Title your post with the name of the disease you are investigating.

1. Give a brief 5-7 sentence overview of the disease. What is it? What organs and body systems are affected? What are the symptoms? What are the primary risk factors?

2. The four graphs below show how more exposure to air pollution (X-axis) can increase the risk of dying from specific diseases (Y-axis). However the risk of dying does not increase at a constant rate as air pollutants become more concentrated. For this question, look at the graph for your selected disease and quantify how much the risk ratio (risk of mortality) changes from a pollutant concentration of 0 μμg/m3 to 25 μμg/m3. In other words, as exposure to air pollution increases, what happens to the risk of mortality?

   

3. How does air pollution contribute to the development and/or worsening of this disease? Make sure to specifically discuss the physiological changes associated with your disease and how continued exposure to air pollution can make symptoms worse. Answering this question will require you to do some outside research. Please cite all sources fully, including in-text citations and a full reference list at the end, for full credit.