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Subscribe to RSSShort-term exposure to air pollution -- just a day or a week in some cases -- may kick off a heart attack or stroke, scientists now say.
Two new studies reveal that the risk of heart attack or stroke can jump after high-pollution days, especially for people who already have predisposing health problems.
Up to a week of exposure to most major types of air pollution may be enough to trigger a heart attack, a new analysis published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association finds. Heart attack risk went up by almost 5 percent with high carbon monoxide levels and almost 3 percent with higher levels of air particles for up to seven days.
The risk of stroke jumped 34 percent after 24 hours of exposure to moderate air pollution, according to a study published in the latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The increase in stroke risk was greatest within 12 to 14 hours of exposure to fine particulate matter and was most strongly associated with pollution from traffic.
No one knows exactly how much pollution will trigger a heart attack or brain attack, but experts suggest that vulnerable people protect themselves by minimizing time spent breathing air contaminated with a heavy dose of fine particles.
“What we can say is that exposure to a high level of pollution is harmful to people at risk,” said Dr. Hazrije Mustafic, the lead author of the analysis that examined data for pollution and heart attack risk in 34 previous studies.
“They must avoid the most polluted places, like highways, for example,” said Mustafic, a cardiologist and a researcher in cardiovascular epidemiology at the University of Paris Descartes, INSERM Unit 970. “We do not know how long of an exposure causes an excess risk of heart attack, but the relationship is linear.”
In other words, Mustaficsaid, as exposure increases, both in terms of time and intensity, so does the risk of a heart attack.
The best recourse for those with cardiovascular disease may be to keep a close eye on local pollution levels, experts say. And government agencies are making that easier and easier. The Environmental Protection Agency, for example, has a downloadable app that provides information on local air quality.
While short-term exposures to pollution can’t explain every stroke or heart attack, they do have a significant impact, experts said.
In 2007, for instance, there were 184,000 hospitalizations for stroke in the Northeastern U.S., said Gregory Wellenius, lead author of a paper on stroke risk published in the latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
“We estimate that 6,000 of those stroke hospitalizations could have been prevented,” Wellenius said.
His research study is the first to look at how short-term exposure to pollution impacts stroke risk. And, even though he found an increased risk, Wellenius is hesitant to offer advice until other studies duplicate his findings.
“This is just one study,” said Wellenius, who performed the research at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and is now an assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown University. “It was done in Boston, a city notable because it has relatively low pollution levels. The study should be replicated in other parts of the country.”
The researchers did find that even moderate amounts of pollution can cause harm, said Roger Peng, an associate professor of biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
“They found a pretty sizable effect on ischemic stroke for a range of people at a relatively low level – one that is well under the national air quality standards,” Peng said.
The study is underscoring the point that “there is no safe level,” of pollution Peng added.
The culprit in both studies is particulate matter, tiny bits of material and droplets, known as PM2.5s. The particles come from a variety of sources, including power plants, factories, trucks and cars.
“These are very small particles, about a 30thof the diameter of a human hair, ” Peng explained.
Peng suggested that people concerned about air quality download from the AIRNow app from the EPA’s website. The app works on both Apple and Android phones and allows users to get pollutant and ozone levels for more than 400 cities across the nation.
On bad air days, people at risk for heart attack or stroke might want to be careful about exercising outside, Peng said.
Other researchers go even further.
“If you have any kind of cardiovascular risk factor it might be prudent to avoid anything that could make you breath hard and bring more junk into your lungs,” said Patrick Kinney, a professor of environmental health sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. “The trouble with some of these pollutants is that they can get inside, too.”
The two new studies extend what scientists had already learned about pollution and cardiovascular disease, Kinney said. Earlier research showed that long-term exposure to pollutants could lead to clogged arteries, just as smoking cigarettes can, Kinney said.
While people can try to limit their personal exposure to these tiny particles, the best approach would be to get pollution levels down, Kinney said.
“To me this suggests the need to push for cleaner air,” he added. “If all cars and trucks were electric powered you wouldn’t have to worry as much.”
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This is what the "Deregulate everything! Kill the EPA!" Republicans want for everybody.
Hey GOP - stop building oil pipelines.
Start building electric cars.
Stat!
I am sure a study is around that says a warm puppy triggers stroke or heart attack. Life has its risks. You want risk free - try dead.
I wish we could get all the old retired Teapublicans together in a smoked filled room for awhile, lets put this to a real test that Teapublicans can actually see, I bet they would change there mind if a few of them started to fall to the floor with a heart attack or started slurring their words. EPA is good, KOCH brothers and Republicans are bad
Electric cars pollute as well. Their power has to come from somewhere, often a coal burning electric plant.
I thought road rage was going too kill me...didn't know I was going too stroke out 8^)
Here is exactly why democrats are poor people to follow... they talk about politics, in any subject matter that has zero to do with politics.
This article mentioned politics ZERO times yet this individual thinks this is a political issue.
This is why newsvine blows right here...
Nothing like a good deep breath of fresh air ....
shosyn
Really? Really? Everytime something has happened it has been Obamas fault so say the Teapublicans, If Obama likes hamburgers and hotdogs Teapublicans complain about hamburgers and hotdogs, Teapublicans want to do away with the EPA, I guess you must be a newbie
Electric? Maybe. Do some research on Natural Gas. Both CNG and LNG right now are viable options for fleets. We could clean the air and tell Saudi Arabia where to go and how to get there all in one blow. We have our own Natural Gas. Fleets change, we keep that money here, and all we need is to get organized and do it.
So, what is better than forcing all cars to get 50+mpg? How about get those fuel savings on truck fleets. Either way, they run well, and we get more savings.
My son and I have lived near a freeway for many years. I have high mercury, platinum, lead, and cadmium levels. My son who is only 14, has high lead levels. We both have health issues we are battling.
We are using chelation to pull the heavy metals out and plan on moving in the future. Air pollution is a silent killer and obviously it is not good to live near a freeway, however you still get plenty of exposure just driving around and being in this world.
I am really glad to see people waking up to this problem. Thanks for the article MSNBC!
Scientist are not usually political by nature (no pun intended). Seemingly authoritative scientific organizations are.
One major source of scientific rebuttals for FOX News is Science & Public Policy Institute. This institute is funded by ALEC a loose group of conservative Republicans and unknown corporations who meet behind closed doors. The SPPI has no income or expenditures according to the IRS, and their website is run by a web designer. Their directors are attorneys not scientist.
This misinformation by the fossil fuel industry is perpetuated by the bias media and swallowed by the unintelligent.
I'm going to go buy a gas mask after reading this. I may even start breathing bottled air tanks wherever I go to prevent those murderers from trying to kill me with air pollution. Everybody should start riding bikes instead of driving cars. Surely the EPA can ban cars after this report. And instead of air travel, we need to start relying on sail boats to transport people and goods around the world. Then we need to convert our entire energy system to solar and wind power.
Now what you all are failing to consider is the health effects on truck drivers...You know, the ones that spend all day on a roadway to bring you the things most of us need to live? The ones that already sacrifice home and family life so that they can make a living going up and down the roads... Now it seems we have to sacrifice out health to provide our families with decent wages. Just one more thing we as truckers have to put up with from an unknowing and uncaring public who only wants to beat us down with regulations that further restrict our ability to earn a living. Maybe we should all stay home a week and let you see what you would be missing without us. Then maybe regs will be considered that will help us survive, such as UV filtering glass (to reduce risk of skin cancer and eye damage), and better cab air filtration systems to help us breath particulate free air. ( Yes, HEPA filtration could be fitted to do this). Just a rant from a trucker, tired of getting screwed over by the public, who knows nothing about how our life is. The only thing most know is that we are larger than their car, so they are scared of us and want to beat us down to their size with unwanted and unneeded regulation, while not being concerned in the least about how our quality of life may be affected just by doing our job, a job that brings so many benefits to the public. End of Rant...Thanks for listening!
Remember why created the EPA in the first place?
Cameron is right - deregulation is just cost-shifting from corporations to *real* people.
Yep, just one more fact for the far Right lunes to ignore. Let's disband the EPA, you know, that Lefty, Socialist organization created by that infamous Commie, Dick Nixon. LOL
Listen folks, I place my faith in Exxon/Mobil, I have confidence that they will always do the right thing, out of morality and morality alone.
People complain about second hand cigarette smoke, but have nothing to say about the air they breath in while driving down the highway. I wonder how many hours of highway driving equals smoking a cigarette?
Considering that cigarette's contain carcinogens and other chemicals that gas fumes and exhaust do not, probably quite a few.
Probably more like a few minutes. Search "OSHA second hand smoke" and follow the link to the nycclash dot com article (can't post a link)
All I know is that I have to stay inside most of the time because of smog and cigarette smoke due to my asthma. All those who say their vices - whether it is cigarettes or diesel cars and trucks - are their "right" forget that there are people out there who are struggling to breathe because of their "right." The saddest part is that they don't care they are causing health problems for others. Just as long as they get to do what they want to do.
I wonder how are parents, grand parents, great grandparents, great great grandparents ever survived this nasty world, Hum, Maybe They Just Did Not Breathe.....
Their world, in the past, was not as polluted as the one we occupy today.
That's how they did it.
Larry, such is the price for capitalism and industrialization. Raging economies means more factories, more factories mean more pollution. Mix that with no regulation and you get China. If China's doesn't start tangling their emissions they are going to poison their country to near unrecoverable levels within the next several decades.
You got that right. People who scream for manufacturing to come back to America have never seen vintage pics of Pittsburgh,Gary IN or Detroit. Granted, there are cleaner methods today but bottom line is, manufacturing pollutes.
If you think our world is more polluted, think again. London and Chicago, late 1800's, turn of the 19th century. A thick coat of black coal dust was prevalent. Early 1970's I remember riding with my dad into Akron or Cleveland and you couldn't barely see the city from the smog. This isn't anything new, and it's never been good for us, but then again, I don't recall kids in school dropping dead from someone opening a bag of peanuts in the cafeteria either. Unless ya'll are willing to give up your laptops and living in close confines in cities, and start doing some small scale agriculture and a bit of old school living with the land, you are doomed by the very things you hold dear. All the people I hear bitching about the way things are now, but they couldn't live without a cell phone or McDonalds. You get what you wrought.
Typical moronic Republican thinking, you don't need clean water, water can drown you.
Or how about guns don't kill people, people kill people and nukes don't kill people, people kill people, so therefore everyone should get a nuke.
Moronic Republican logic.
@Mark, quick to call out Republicans, let's call it for what it is. Democrats are part of big business too. So who's the moron? I think it's the guy who thinks that only one group in the political arena are out for the money.
@Mark,...I don't know why you are such a hater. I suppose you walk or ride everywhere on a wooden bicycle naked and live in a cave in the woods. There are a lot of Repubs and Demos and Independants working for less polution and cleaner energy. The real hold up is the hipocrites that say "not in my back yard". I.E. Massachusetts people fight windmills 5 miles out to see because it would spoil their view. Entire cities go to legal war because someone proposes new rail lines (much less pollution per ton/mile than any other way to move cargo). Maybe you should truly inform yourself instead of trolling and spreading hate. Maybe you could educate yourself and drive your local politicians to see farther than the next election. Who knows, maybe you will leave a legacy of something other than hating Republicans and trolling board.
McMillen is right. That famous London fog wasnt fog. ;)
And yet China is the most populous nation on earth...
That rhinoceros horn must be working
Cuz they've gone the longest without being wiped out by some foreign invader.
Electric cars?? Who's to say they don't pollute? Massive electric batteries that may create an electro magnetic field? I can just see someone with a pacemaker walking thru a parking lot full of electric cars ! poof!
There would only be a small magnetic field when current is actually flowing (just like most other electric motors), and the batteries don't have any permanent magnetism ... I don't think you need to worry about it.
Electric car pollution comes form building/disposing of the batteries and generating the electricity.
Living causes death, so quit doing stupid studies.....
We still put amalgam fillings (+-50% MERCURY) in peoples MOUTHS as a regular practice. We , at the very least, mis-educate the public about the very significant health problems that the toxic industrial waste byproduct Fluoride has on our health, and the precautions we should absolutely take if we choose to use it in our toothpaste. We let Monsanto cut out most of our healthy crop diversity so they can breed plants that have built in pesticides in them. We do not develop Thorium powered LFTR reactors that could actually burn the waste we would have put in Yucca mountain, and could do so at far higher efficiencies and cost savings than traditional reactors.
Whats more, we have the technology to replace/convert the huge dirty diesel powered semi truck fleet that enriches terrorists, with LNG (Natural Gas) that would be cleaner , cost effective, and would keep all the $$ here.
So how is it anyone really expects that we care enough about whether some people live or die for a little bit of air pollution. Sorry to say it, but profits by the companies now in power with the broken business models they have is more important than people's lives.
Well this is a scientific study, and we know how Republicans feel about science that doesn't fit in with their "values"..... Drill baby drill? LOL
More of the same from the liberals. The sky is falling, the sky is falling! We should just all stay in our beds with the covers over our heads and never come out into the daylight.
Fights
After seeing all the deaths caused by the Twin Towers collapse, it should be obvious to even the stupid that air pollution is dangerous. Besides, it's the GOP that keeps trying to tell the country the sky is falling.
Thirty percent of all the oil found in the U.S. is sold OVERSEAS!!!
Why? Because most foriegn refineries can not handle high sulfure oil and will pay a premium for low sulfer American oil. So its profits before Patriotism so typical of Republicans and their Corporate masters.
Drill baby Drill makes more sense as Sara Palins mating call than a call for more U.S. oil to be sold OVERSEAS FOR THE BENIFIT OF THE CORPORATE OVERLORDS OF AMERICA and their Republican stooges.
Most people live as unhealthy so i would not be surprised if most people are at risk. The repubs want to save money by abolishing the epa, but if they do that they will just increase the cost of healthcare.
Actually air pollution is lower than at the dawn of the industrial age say starting in 1830-1930s.
Hers's the problem with these studies. No one talks about the condition of the person or at what age they die. I have no doubt that air pollution is a bad thing but once someone has a bad heart and is older something is going to get them eventually. They deteriorate to a point where the slightest elevation of pollution is a hazard. In other words this just pushes them over the edge. If it wasn't pollution it would be something else. A much better case could be made in a long term study of pollution and overall health. We all tend to support studies that push our agenda but this one does not really tell us much.
Air pollution? What is the government spraying in the air almost everyday. Chemtrails? What is in them? Smog is way down. Chemicals sprayed way up! Just like the government, put the blame on something entirely different than the actual problem.
I'll blame the government, but for not getting rid of oil altogether. President Carter had it right. The real cost of oil is extremely high and then there is the health issues, and that little bit of research called manmade climate change. There is huge data on that................but that's just too upsetting for some people to handle.
More Drill Baby Drill for America! Let's stop and smell the air and then think of the real cost of oil!
About time the medical community stopped kow towing to the oil industry and big money. How many lives before people say enough of this crap? Now the Earth is in Climate change, and that could spell the end of us all if things turn bad enough. See thats the problem, no one knows how bad it will be. I always go with the worse case scenario, to be prepared. In this case that worst case scenario = doom.
Horse an buggy was a hell of a lot cheaper and safer than cars ever were. In more than a few ways..
Climate change WILL NOT end us all. Some places will become less liveable so those folks will move to the places that will become more liveable. Resources will shift, power will shift but we wont become extinct. Its called Climate Change not Climate End and its this hyperbole that destroys the credibility of its proponents. Even people who dont understand the science still know the smell of BS.
Act now, it is time to install a filter on all your politicians to reduce global warming as well as methane gas.
Vegetarians are nothing more then two legged cows releasing toxic methane into your air. Tax them!!!!
Just all pure rubbish ! the basic fact is, that " living " is dangerous! !!! all people die . sooner or later , but they will die !
Maybe Romney should change his tune to: Oh beautiful polluted skies, with amber waves of gunk.
Good natural, clean, pure fresh air is the best to breathe/inhale into our lungs, the way Mother Nature intended to be all along. And it is FREE to enjoy, to live happily, and to live life's longevity. Life with good breathable air is so beautiful and so very healthy for all of us. It is a pleasure to breathe easy.
Unlike the other air pollutants in which some people have to pay for the price of various degrees to living miserably unhappy; developing some or multiple ailments; worrying whether the amount of health insurance payments is covered or not; and to be concerned of various unhealthy, unnatural, and uncertain life's unexpected surprises in store for us. This kind of life doesn't seem like a good idea of living the good life. Not unless you don't mind to endure the sufferings and encountering the unawarenesses it brings.
2 new technologies that may help the environment, you decide.
The H2O Car or Water Powered Automobile - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - OR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Air Car or Zero Pollution Automobile - - -