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The health impacts of air pollution have received much attention and have recently been subject to extensive study. Exposure to air pollutants such as particulate matter (PM) has been linked to lung and cardiovascular disease and increases in both hospital admissions and mortality. However, little attention has been given to the effects of air pollution on the intestine.

The recent discovery of genes linked to susceptibility to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) explains only a fraction of the hereditary variance for these diseases. This, together with evidence of increases in incidence of IBD in the past few decades of enhanced industrialization, suggests that environmental factors could contribute to disease pathogenesis. Despite this, little research has examined the potential contribution of air pollution and its components to intestinal disease.

Exposure of the bowel to air pollutants occurs via mucociliary …