Friday, November 8, 2013

Air Pollution Can Cause Heart Attacks

Air Pollution Can Cause Heart Attacks - Highway congestion can cause not only stress but also dangerous for the heart. According to research inhale smoke containing pollutants in a long time can lead to heart attacks.

In research published in the British Medical Journal, researchers found exposure to particulate pollutants and nitrogen dioxide that is released the vehicle dangerous to heart health, although the risk is relatively small at only 1.3 percent.

Yet two-particle exposure in a long time into the lungs can trigger heart attacks about six hours after a person is inhaling pollutants. The experts call this condition as an effect of "harvesting" of pollution.

Krishnan Bhaskaran and his team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tested on 79,288 cases of heart attacks that occurred in 15 suburban England and Wales between 2003-2006. Then the researchers measured the amount of pollution in the area at the time of the patients had a heart attack. The data used comes from the UK National Air Quality Archive.

The researchers also measured levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone, as well as other pollutant particles called PM10 and nitrogen dioxide.

"We estimate that within the context of pollutant PM10 and NO2 levels high enough to trigger a heart attack six hours later," said the researcher.

Professor Jeremy Pearson of the British Heart Foundation explains, can cause air pollution thickens the blood making it more easily clogged and are at high risk of heart attack.

"My advice to patients already diagnosed with heart disease should avoid being outside the polluted air in a long time," he said.

UK study also concluded that air pollution causes 29,000 premature deaths annually.

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