ABSTRACT
Human beings inhale a total of around 10,000 litres of air everyday into the lungs, which gets distributed via thousands of branching tubes to a large alveolar surface area of around 75 m2, made up of thin epithelial and endothelial cell layers that are in contact directly with the blood circulation. It is therefore not surprising that the quality of air we breathe determines not only the health of our lungs but also the health of other body organs. With rapidly increasing industrialization and urbanization the quality of air we breathe has deteriorated markedly over the years, and it has been argued that this has been a major driving factor behind the growing problem of allergic diseases worldwide.
