Episode 2: The Air We Breathe

What if I told you that with each breath, you’re inhaling much more than just the air you need to survive? Tiny, invisible particles, chemicals, and gases enter your lungs every time you breathe. Some are harmless. Some are not.

On this episode, we explore what's supposed to be in the air we breathe, what's actually in it, and how it affects you.

Transcript

Hey and welcome to the second episode of Inhale, Exhale, an air quality podcast about the air we breathe. My name is Ms. Carmen, I’m a science educator in Brooklyn, NY, and I will be your host. On the date of this recording, the outside temperature is 54 degrees and the AQI is 7.

Take a deep breath in… and out. Feels normal, right? But what if I told you that with each breath, you’re inhaling much more than just the air you need to survive? Tiny, invisible particles, chemicals, and gases enter your lungs every time you breathe. Some are harmless. Some are not. What’s in the air around us—whether we’re inside our homes, walking through a park, or stuck in traffic— it affects us in ways we don’t always or immediately realize. In fact, we breathe in about 2 tablespoons of stuff, or particulates, each and every day.

Today, we’re talking about the air we breathe—what it’s made of, how it affects our health, and why understanding it is more important than ever.


Let’s start with the basics: How do we breathe?

With every inhale, you pull in air, which travels in through your nose and/or mouth, down your trachea, into your right and left lungs, then into bronchi, which leads to bronchioles, and then into tiny air sacs called alveoli. These sacs are where the good stuff happens. Oxygen moves into your bloodstream while carbon dioxide moves out. As you exhale, your body releases the CO₂ back out into the world.

Here’s something fascinating: The average person breathes around 22,000 times a day. Think about that. 22,000 times a day, your body is pulling in whatever is in the air around you. Imagine if every time you sipped water, you were also taking in tiny bits of dirt or chemicals. You probably wouldn’t drink that water. But when it comes to air, we don’t get a choice.

But here’s the catch to breathing: Your lungs aren’t built to filter air. Their primary function is serving as an exchange point for oxygen and carbon dioxide. Every time we breathe, which is a lot, our lungs take in everything that's in the air, both good and bad. 


So what’s in the air we breathe? Ideally, air is made up of:
78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and the rest are miscellaneous gases, including argon and carbon dioxide. That’s the basic recipe for clean air. Unfortunately, air isn’t just those basic ingredients. It also includes pollutants like:

Particulate matter, which are tiny particles that can get deep into your lungs and even into your bloodstream.

Ground-level ozone, a key component of smog which irritates your lungs.

Carbon monoxide, an invisible, odorless gas that can be deadly in high concentrations.

Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which originate mostly from the burning of fossil fuels, and are known to cause respiratory issues.

Volatile Organic Compounds  or VOCs, which are chemicals released from paints, cleaning products, and even some furniture. That new car smell? That’s volatile organic compounds.

Breathing polluted air doesn’t just make the sky look hazy—it has real, and sometimes lasting effects on your body. Pollutants like fine particulate matter can irritate airways, trigger asthma attacks, and increase the risk of infections.


Air pollution has been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, and even stroke. Recent studies suggest long-term exposure to pollution may contribute to cognitive decline or brain fog, memory loss, and even depression. I was originally gonna mention who is more at risk than others, but the fact is that we all have to breathe to survive, so we’re all at risk of the consequences.

Here’s something wild to think about: The same air we breathe now was once the same air dinosaurs breathed. Air circulates, moves, and shifts. That means pollutants we put into the air today don’t just disappear. They linger. They travel. They affect people and environments far beyond where they were released. The air in our planet IS the air in our planet. The exact composition of our air has changed over time, but this is basically what it’s been. We don’t get new, fresh air to work with. This is what we’ve got to work with.


The problem with air pollution gets complicated when we take into account that pollutants released into the air don’t just stay where they were produced. Wind carries them across cities, states, and even across oceans to new continents. That means pollution from wildfires in California can impact air quality over in New York. Emissions from factories in one country can, and does, affect air in another.

I hope that understanding this about air pollution gets everyone personally invested. Air pollution is not a local issue—it’s a global one.


So let’s talk about it. Have you ever felt:

A tight chest when walking by a busy street? Itchy eyes and a headache on high-pollution days? Tired and sluggish when indoors for too long? These are all ways bad air affects your body in real time.

Even more concerning, many of these effects happen without us noticing. If you’ve ever felt winded after climbing a few stairs on a bad air quality day, that’s not just being out of shape—that’s pollution making it harder for your lungs to do their job.


So what can we do? Well, we can’t stop breathing, but there's other things we can do:

- Check the AQI daily before planning outdoor activities (more on this next episode!).
- Use air purifiers indoors..
- Ventilate, or air out, your home to reduce indoor air pollution.
- Reduce your contribution to the problem by driving less, using less energy, and supporting clean energy policies.


So, what’s the takeaway? The air we breathe affects us much more than we realize. It impacts our health, how we feel, and even how long we live.

This is why we measure air quality. In our next episode, we’ll break down the AQI or Air Quality Index. What do those numbers actually mean? How can you use them to protect yourself and your family?


Stay tuned, and if you found this information helpful, share it with someone! The more we all know about the air we breathe, the better choices we can make. And don’t forget, we all live on the same planet, so no matter where you are, like it or not we’re all in this together. Thanks for listening! This is Ms. Carmen signing off from Inhale, Exhale, an air quality podcast about the air we breathe.