Air Pollution and Extreme Temperatures Increase Heart Attack Risk
As if the heightened air pollution and strange temperature fluctuations of the world weren’t already big enough problems on their own, it seems another may be a result of too much exposure to them: heart attacks.
According to a study conducted by Dr. Krishnan Bhaskaran of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, when temperatures are abnormally hot or cold, or on days when there is excessive air pollution, people are at greater risk of having heart attacks. For example, if there are 10 heart attacks in a city per day, there might be several more that happen on days that fit the pollution or temperature bill.
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The researchers created 2 separate reports for the study. In one report, they reviewed 19 studies on temperature and heart attack relations, while in the other report they reviewed 26 studies comparing the attacks to air pollution. They discovered that 8 out of 12 winter studies showed short-term increases in heart attack risk during the colder weather and 7 out of 13 summer studies showed the increase during hotter temperatures.
Bhaskaran commented that “there was a lot of variation in the methods and quality of the studies we reviewed, so more work is needed in this area, but we thought the results were consistent enough to suggest that these effects are real”.
As for the pollution studies, they were rather vague in comparison, but mainly suggested that heart attack risk does increase with levels of different pollutants. Though, it would seem no level of air pollution was completely “safe” from seeing possible heart attack risk. According to Bhaskaran, “our findings would suggest that further lowering limits would likely further reduce the health burden associated with pollution, which is, of course, a desirable outcome”.
A number of studies have already been conducted that link temperature changes to the increase in deaths due to heart disease mortality. However, by studying heart attacks specifically (rather than deaths caused by heart disease), scientists could gain a better understanding of health risks caused by temperature changes and air pollution and find out why those factors increase the risk in some people.
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Professor David E. Newby of the University of Edinburgh and colleagues added an editorial to the study, noting that air pollution control efforts could help reduce CO2 emissions, thus decreasing the effects of climate change down the road. Already, there are some governments taking the initiative to alert people when temperature or pollution changes are at hand. The UK will actually make automated calls to people with emphysema when they are at risk; and this effort has reduced hospital admissions for lung disease patients.
If nothing more, this study goes to show one very important thing: the effects of climate change and how one deals with them really are matters of the heart.
By Heidi Marshall
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Tags: Air Pollution, climate change, health issues affected by climate change, heart attacks
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