Here's another reason to stay in if local air quality is bad. Besides raising your chance of experiencing respiratory or lung problems, air pollution can raise the risk of sudden heart attacks, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Upon comparing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data on small particulates and other pollutants around New York City with the 8,000-plus out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occurred in the area between 2002 and 2006, researchers at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center and The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research discovered that cardiac arrests are more common on high pollution days than days when the air is clearer. The effect is even more noticeable in the summer, when pollution is at its worst.
The researchers saw a looser correlation between cardiac arrest and levels of ozone, nitric oxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide.
"Small particulate matter is dangerous to health," lead investigator Dr. Robert Silverman, associate professor of emergency medicine and director of research at LIJ's Department of Emergency Medicine, said in a statement. He noted that pollution-related cardiac arrests occurred at times when the pollution levels were high, but still below the current EPA safety threshold.
To learn more:
- read the American Journal of Epidemiology abstract
- here's the press release
- read the Reuters article
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