Dry airways and inflammation are linked, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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As our planet warms, relative humidity hasn’t changed much but evaporation rate has increased, so things are dryer. This is a prescription for increased respiratory problems, says David Edwards, a respiratory health expert at Johns Hopkins. 

Edwards: We took airway epithelial cells in vitro, healthy airways and we exposed them to humidity that was less than completely saturated as we think of the air in our airways. What we understand now is because there's so much mouth breathing and that the air is getting drier and drier, not only outside but also indoors where we live we have relatively dry air that's reaching our upper airways. And so we exposed airways to that dry air and we observed that mucus thins and then compresses airway epithelial cells and it leads to inflammation.     :34

So if you’re noticing more respiratory illnesses you’re probably correct, Edwards says. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.