Air pollution increases risk of heart attack

Study: Air Pollution Increases Risk of Heart Attack

December 4th, 2006 @ 6:01pmEd Yeates Reporting (KSL TV, Utah)

The American Heart Association's respected publication "Circulation" shows people with clogged arteries have an increased risk of heart attack after short term exposure to air pollution.

We are in the beginning stage of our own seasonal air inversion. Bad air, like we see here every year, was the basis for this Utah collaborative study. Brigham Young University and LDS Hospital teamed up on this latest research.

And it was extensive. It shows that very short term exposure to air pollution increases the risk of heart attack in those who have coronary artery blockage.

Jeffrey Anderson, M.D., LDS Hospital Cardiologist: "What was sobering about this study is even one or two or three days of exposure can bring on a heart attack."

Dr Jeffrey Anderson, along with a team of LDS Hospital cardiologists and colleagues, joined epidemiological researcher Dr. Arden Pope at BYU to collect this latest data. It shows a four percent increased risk of a heart attack for every ten milligrams of air containing fine pieces of particulate or soot (less than one hundredths the width of a human hair).

Anderson: "That's small particulate. Now that sounds like a fairly small increase, but we, on a bad day, might have an increase of a hundred, so ten times that." These little fine pieces, suspended in heavier concentrations during inversions, pretty much all come from vehicles and industry. Dr. Arden Pope, BYU Epidemiological Research: "They're not generated by wind blown dust or anything like that. They're almost entirely from burning things or high temperature industrial processes."

Circulation is publishing the Utah study because the evidence is backed with big numbers. Dr. Benjamin Horne, LDS Hospital Public Health Research: "typical studies have hundreds. This one had thousands. We had about five to six-thousand individuals who were having unstable chest pain or heart attacks." Along with the five to six thousand LDS Hospital was specifically following, an additional eight thousand people came into the hospital electively on those bad air days. HORNE: "THIS IS A BIG PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE" More studies are yet to come. Researchers want to find out what the pollution-triggered inflammation mechanism really is that causes the problem. They also want to find ways to protect these people during inversions.