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How Is Air Pollution Linked To Cardiovascular Disease? Every year, about 2.4 million people die from causes directly due to air pollution, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). More than 500,000 Americans die each year because of cardiopulmonary disease linked to breathing fine particle air pollution. Air pollution has been known to be bad for the lung and it would cause lung-related ailments including respiratory infections and possibly lung cancer. A study had shown that pneumonia related death is strongly related to air pollution originated from motor vehicles. In 2005, a study conducted by European Commission concluded that air pollution reduced life expectancy by an average of almost 9 months across the European Union. The cause of deaths included aggravated asthma, emphysema, lung and heart diseases, and respiratory allergies. While acute exposure to air pollution has been linked to myocardial infarction (heart attack), its effect on heart failure is uncertain. Researchers from University of Edinburgh in Scotland recently reported that short-term surge in air pollution particles or other gas pollutants in the air could raise the risk of heart failure.
They published their findings online on July 10, 2013 in ‘The Lancet’ after carrying out a meta-analysis of 35 studies in 12 countries including the United States. British Heart Foundation funded the study. Heart failure is a chronic condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood effectively. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), about half of heart failure patients die within 5 years. The study investigated the link between daily increases in gaseous (carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone) and particulate (PM2.5 and PM10) air pollutants, and heart failure hospitalizations or heart failure mortality. Even a brief spike in the exposure like a smog alert, according to the findings, could cause a raise in the risk of hospitalization or death from heart failure by 2 or 3 percent. For carbon monoxide (a clear odorless gas), a raise of just 1 part per million increased the risk by 3.52 percent. For sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, an increase of 10 parts billion raised the risk by 2.36 and 1.7 percent respectively. The only exception is ozone, a well-known respiratory irritant at the ground level. For particulate matter, an increase of 10 μg/m3 raised the risk by 2.12 and 1.63 percent for PM2.5 and PM10 respectively. The biggest risk was on the day of exposure with more persistent effects for PM2·5. It is inevitably that the entire population is exposed to air pollution. Even modest reduction in air pollution could have significant major cardiovascular health benefits and substantial healthcare cost savings. The researchers estimated that a mean reduction of 3·9 μg/m3 in PM2·5 would prevent 7978 heart failure hospitalizations and save a third of a billion US dollars a year. On April 23, 2013, as a matter of fact, American researchers from University of Michigan, University of Washington and other Institutes had already reported in journal ‘PLOS Medicine’ that long-term exposure to air pollution might be linked to cardiovascular diseases by speeding up atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). After following 5,362 people ages between 45 and 84 from 6 American metropolitan areas as part of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air), the researchers found that higher concentrations of fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) were associated with a faster thickening of the inner 2 layers of the common carotid artery. The latter is an important blood vessel providing blood to the head, neck and brain. On the other hand, they also found that reduction of fine particulate air pollution over time were linked to slower progression of the blood vessel thickness. PM2.5 refers to particles measuring no more than 2.5 micrometers, 30 times smaller than a human hair, and PM10 covers the slightly coarser variant. The prevailing air quality standards set by European Union (EU) limit PM10 exposure to a yearly average of 40 μg/m3, and 25 μg/m3 for PM2.5. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines recommend that annual exposure not exceeding 20 μg/m3 for PM10 and 10 μg/m3 for PM2.5.
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