Air Pollution Increases Heart Attack Risk

Exposure to air pollutants increases the risk of a fatal heart attack, according to a new thesis published by the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden).

A Karolinska researcher, Mats Rosenlund, Ph.D., explored a number of factors in the external environment thought to contribute to the risk of cardiovascular disease, including air pollution, passive smoking, noise pollution, and the chemical composition of drinking water.

Dr. Rosenlund's study of the relationship between air pollution and cardiovascular disease suggests that a prolonged exposure to ambient air pollutants increases the risk of a fatal heart attack, especially outside the hospital. This relationship was found to be particularly true for airborne pollutants caused by motor traffic, although there was no influence on the risk of suffering an incapacitating or nonfatal heart attack. To obtain the pollution data, each subject's home address was converted to geographic coordinates, which were then cross-referenced with data on all known sources of pollutant emission since 1950.

Dr. Rosenlund's studies on passive smoking show that passive smoking does increase the risk of a heart attack. The results suggest that the combined exposure at home and at work contributes significantly to the risk of having a heart attack. The thesis also included previous findings that a correlation exists between hypertension and aircraft noise, However, the study on the hardness of drinking water showed no evidence that the hardness or the magnesium or calcium content has any effect on the risk of a heart attack.