Short-term exposure to air pollution could trigger appendicitis in adults, possibly because pollutants cause inflammatory responses.
People exposed to nitrogen dioxide for a week during June, July and August -- months when levels of the pollutant are at their highest -- were almost twice as likely to come down with the potentially deadly condition. Those over 64 were more than four times more likely to develop appendicitis under the same conditions.
Nitrogen dioxide pollution is usually produced by traffic.