I think most of us are familiar with the somewhat obvious link between air pollution and our lungs. Particles in the air can make it harder for people (and animals) to breathe, which affects health…especially when lung capacity is compromised already, e.g., for smokers or obese people.
Most people probably don’t know that air pollution can also affect our hearts. Medical and public health researchers are providing evidence that links air pollution to the heart’s operations. And, what interrupts the heart’s operations can influence the likelihood of heart disease or a heart attack.
Here is an example of this type of research as copied from the Science Daily website:
….The body’s ability to properly regulate heartbeat so the heart can pump the appropriate amounts of blood into the circulation system relies on the stability of the heart’s electrical activity, called electrophysiology.
“Air pollution is associated with cardiopulmonary mortality and morbidity, and it is generally accepted that impaired heart electrophysiology is one of the underlying mechanisms,” said Fan He, master’s program graduate, Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine. “This impairment is exhibited through fluctuations in the heart rate from beat to beat over an established period of time, known as heart rate variability. It is also exhibited through a longer period for the electric activity to return to the baseline, known as ventricular repolarization….(report continues)
Research citations:
Fan He, Michele L Shaffer, Xian Li, Sol Rodriguez-Colon, Deborah L Wolbrette, Ronald Williams, Wayne E Cascio, Duanping Liao. Individual-level PM2.5 exposure and the time course of impaired heart rate variability: the APACR Study. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 2010; DOI:10.1038/jes.2010.21
Duanping Liao, Michele L. Shaffer, Sol Rodriguez-Colon, Fan He, Xian Li, Deborah L. Wolbrette, Jeff Yanosky, Wayne E. Cascio. Acute Adverse Effects of Fine Particulate Air Pollution on Ventricular Repolarization.Environmental Health Perspectives, 2010; DOI:10.1289/ehp.0901648
