Bad air quality is bad for your heart

Monday, February 10, 2014 by: Antonia
Tags: heart health, environmental pollution, air quality

(NaturalNews) A study conducted by the ESCAPE project and published last week by the BMJ Group showed that long-term exposure to air pollution could increase the incidence of coronary events. The participants continuously exposed to bad air quality showed a 13 percent increase in the risk of developing a heart disease.

Study details

The research followed more than 100,000 participants in several European countries for 11.5 years. They didn't have any prior heart conditions to begin with, and their other health and social variants were similar across the group. The researchers selected participants with common potential confounders, including occupation, marital status and education level. They also looked at people with similar lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking status, among others. Regular measurements of common air pollutants were taken in places where the participants lived.

About 5 percent of the people in the studied groups developed a heart problem over the given period of time. The incidence of heart conditions in the areas with poor air quality, however, was 13 percent higher as compared to low-pollution areas. Conducted in Europe, the study also showed that the level of air pollution that can be considered harmful for one's heart is far below the current EU annual pollution limits.

Similar studies

The study by the ESCAPE project was one of the most comprehensive research examples on the subject, but other such studies have been done and showed similar results. Researchers looked into the increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases in women, for example, in a study in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. They found a 21 percent increase in the risk of heart problems in pre-menopausal women with a 10 µg/m3 increase in air pollution. Another long-term study published in the Environmental Health Perspectives in 2009 also showed a relationship between bad air quality and increased mortality from cardiovascular diseases.

Sources for this article include:

www.bmj.com

www.webmd.boots.com

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

www.nejm.org

About the author:
A science enthusiast with a keen interest in health nutrition, Antonia has been intensely researching various dieting routines for several years now, weighing their highs and their lows, to bring readers the most interesting info and news in the field. While she is very excited about a high raw diet, she likes to keep a fair and balanced approach towards non-raw methods of food preparation as well. >>> Click here to see more by Antonia