Air Pollution: The Cause Of Heart Attacks And Death?

A study has found that environmental wellness isn’t just important for the sake of the planet, but it could make all the difference to your wellbeing, especially your heart. According to researchers at Rice University, air pollution causes heart attacks and even death, especially when ozone and particulate matter are some of the pollutants involved, and in the summer, when ozone levels are higher.

For the study, which was reported last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in Boston, investigators Katherine Ensor and Loren Raun examined 11,677 cases of cardiac arrest logged by emergency services personnel in Houston, Texas, between 2004 and 2011. They discovered that, during periods where pollution was at its peak, the wellness of Houston residents was at a 4.6% higher risk of suffering a heart attack.

An extensive network of air monitors throughout the Houston area record levels of air pollutants and, since all these heart attacks took place outside of hospitals, Ensor and Raun cross referenced these levels with the time and place of the cases. Houston is home to America’s biggest petrochemical refining complex, and is eighth in the nation in ozone levels and 13th on Forbes’ Annual Ranking of the 20 Dirtiest Cities in America.

That’s not to say that we’re safe over here in Britain. The researchers assert that the findings are significant to any region with air quality issues, and these results are enough to give you pause. According to their study, of the 300,000 people that suffer heart attacks outside of hospitals, over half of which occurring in the summer, a remarkable 90% of them die. Though there are other circumstances at work, such as low-income, low educational attainment and African-American ethnicity, the researchers say that, nonetheless, environmental wellness is a factor.

For years, researchers in respiratory health have suspected a relationship between raised levels of particulate matter (meaning airborne particles smaller than 2.5 micrograms) and cardiac arrest. However, Ensor and Raun say that this is the first time that a direct correlation has been made between ozone levels and heart attacks. They concluded by saying that it’s important for federal air quality standards to be adequate where ozone levels are concerned (at 75 parts per billion), but, more importantly, to save lives the particulate matter standards need to be tightened below the current level of 35 micrograms per cubic metre of air.