Clearing The Air: Can Air Pollution Also Cause Heart Attacks?

Not many know (also it was a surprise to me) that Air Pollution causes nearly 9 million deaths every year, and of these deaths, Cardio-Vascular-Disease (CVD) is a significant contributor.

Now with some non-indifferent effort, I researched and extracted information from studies (the references, I have listed below), that show how Air Pollution impacts our cardiovascular system’s health, including the mechanisms by which it is affected.

• Ps.: I learned a lot preparing this article, and I hope that you will also find this information important for you, your family, and even for your organization's benefit.

Now cutting to the chase, the quick takeaway is this: there is clear epidemiological evidence for the link between Air Pollution and CVD, and to be more detailed, the European Environment Agency says that both short and long-term exposure to air pollution can lead also to a wide range of diseases, including?stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, trachea, bronchus and lung cancers, aggravated asthma and lower respiratory infections.

Air Pollution’s Impact

Now, of course, 9 million people (and more) dying every year from Air pollution is considered to be a grave global health issue, but the significance of the problem is even more noteworthy if we relate it to the COVID death numbers indicted on Worldmeters website.

Worldmeter’s data shows COVID killing “only” 6.7 million (up until today), so the logic would seem that while COVID was a big health issue problem, it is really nothing at all like the “John Wick” efficient killer effect of Air Pollution – it killing 30% more people than COVID!

• And every year after, air pollution will kill the same number, while COVID’s killing time is over. (Until of course another gain-of-function lab leaks another version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus or another new type of virus)

This fact, that more were dying from Air Pollution, like 90 million over the last 10 years, than from COVID’s “meagre” 6.7 million, as an implication, I didn’t realize the grave significance until I made this study.

What is Air Pollution, really?

Air Pollution, can be defined as anything beyond the gases that Mother Nature created and in the proportions put into air, that "she" decided are good for human beings (and generally for all other animals) to breathe.

The composition of pure air is about:

• 78% Nitrogen
• 21% Oxygen
• 0.9% Argon, and,
• 0.1% of other gases, like carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour, neon, and air composition, also includes naturally occurring (generated) micro and nano dust particles.

Of course, “Mother” nature in the future (in the attempt, to try to kill a few more of us) might also try to change this composition of gases in the air, through some catastrophic volcanic eruption or eruptions, or worse through an extinction event type of meteor like the Chicxulub asteroid?(about 60 million years ago) which not only changed the proportion of gases in the air, but also generated gigantic “mega-tsunami” waves more than a mile high.

But until something like that that happens again, guess we must learn to manage the problems we have created like Air Pollution. (Sorry I digressed bit)

Now Air Pollution (also called SMOG) is composed of a complex mixture of “human activity” generated gasses and particles, like nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, ozone, and much organic and inorganic particulate matter (PM), both micro and nano size (the later extremely dangerous you should know), and as these pollutants enter the bloodstream through the lungs, where they interact with various components of the cardiovascular system, they lead to adverse health outcomes – like yes, also heart attacks.

So, if your still curious to learn more, let’s now take a helicopter view of the effects on our cardiovascular system caused by Air Pollution.

The Mechanisms of Damage

Research shows several major ones. I listed the top 4.

1. Inflammation: Air pollution can trigger an inflammatory response in the body, leading to the production of cytokines, which can cause damage to the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels.
2. Oxidative stress: Can lead to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can cause oxidative stress and damage to the cardiovascular system.
3. Autonomic dysfunction: Can affect the autonomic nervous system, which regulates heart rate and blood pressure, leading to cardiovascular dysfunction.
4. Coagulation and thrombosis: Can activate extreme platelet production, leading to coagulation and thrombosis, which can increase the risk of cardiovascular events.

I think for now, this is enough a list of “triggers”.

There is also epidemiological evidence for the link between Air Pollution Particles and CVD.

I found numerous studies in this subject area also, for instance:

1. A study conducted in the United States found that only a 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure was associated with a 9% increase in hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease. Particles in the PM2.5 size range are very dangerous because they travel deeply into the respiratory tract, so reaching the lungs. Ps.: Viruses are 10x smaller than PM2.5 and evidence is accumulating that masks have proven to be ineffective (another word, for useless) to prevent the viruses from reaching the lungs.
2. Also, a study conducted in China found that exposure to high levels of PM2.5 was associated with a 20% increase in the risk of stroke.
3. Finally, another study conducted in Europe found that only a 5 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure was associated with a 13% increase in the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality.

Here also, I think enough epidemiological studies.

So, what can be done?

Masks?

No, they don’t stop nanoparticles (viruses are nanoparticles) nor of course stop noxious gasses, or you wouldn’t be able to breathe even bad air, so what to do?

There are studies that suggest that it would be wise to produce policy interventions that can help to reduce air pollution and its impacts on cardiovascular health, and here I have chosen three areas, only to cite (I don’t want to bore), that I also think you would naturally agree with.

1. New information created to increase awareness: Governments can communicate information of the seriousness of Air Pollution and the damage that it can create, and so also coherently encourage the use of public transportation necessary to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, leading to lower levels of air pollution.
2. ?Urban Development Actions: Urban planning can also play a key role in reducing air pollution by promoting, for example, the increase of green space areas, so reducing the urban heat island effect, and promoting walkable neighbourhoods. (not a bad idea)
3. ?Legislative Actions: Governments can also ethically impose Air Pollution limits, and check and enforce the emissions of pollutants from industries, vehicles, and power plants, so to reduce the amount of pollution in the air.

• Also, to help in this area, the World Health Organization (WHO) has studied guidelines for air pollution levels, which include a maximum of 10 μg/m3 of PM2.5, 40 μg/m3 of NO2, and 100 μg/m3 of ozone. Most cities are already way over this limit.

Conclusions.

Research has shown that Air Pollution is a global health concern that poses significant risks to human health, particularly cardiovascular health, and that good government social responsibility is to make efforts to increase the health of the population under its duty – mainly by informing, legislating and ensuring compliance of guidelines.

• People, when they are adequately and honestly informed are remarkably good at solving problems.

Now, as final thought, I think that anybody reading this article can also see at least two new crucial questions arise: (and quite obvious ones)

• How much of this dangerous Outdoor Air Pollution gets inside buildings like hospitals?
• Could it be that we have also a grave, health-impacting and deathly, heart attack indoor air pollution, problem?

?And those questions are for another article. Back to researching!

Author: George Bonatsos