Is your home in a high-pollution zone?
A 2005 University of Southern California study showed that people living in more polluted areas of Los Angeles have thicker neck arteries than those living in less polluted areas, in part because the arteries are often constricted, putting people at risk for stroke.
A 2005 Harvard School of Public Health study revealed that implanted defibrillators detect more severe heart-rhythm disturbances when air pollution levels are high.
Invisible attackers
Not only can pollution cause a heart condition, but smog also makes people with congestive heart failure gasp for breath. A McGill University study found that patients with congestive heart failure take in less oxygen on more polluted days.
"If the air pollution is higher, less oxygen comes into the bloodstream. Anything disruptive in the environment can get them into trouble," says Dr. Nadia Giannetti, a cardiologist at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal and coauthor of the study.
One of the worst contributors to fine-particle pollution is diesel exhaust. Construction equipment is a major source of diesel particulate in urban areas, says Michael Brauer, an epidemiologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, noting that reducing diesel emissions from such machines, as well as buses and trucks, could help to save lives.
While governments will have to improve standards for vehicles and industry, you can try to protect your heart by limiting your exposure to heavy traffic when exercising and driving, and by choosing a healthier place to live.
The breath taker
Environmental pollutants, such as ozone and fine particles, make life miserable for 2.7 million Canadians with asthma and more than 1.5 million with COPD. (COPD is made up of two lung diseases, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, that cause lung damage and obstruct airflow in the lungs.) Fine particles can evade the body's natural cleaning and repair system in the lungs.
While larger particles are trapped and cleaned out by sticky mucous and tiny hairs (cilia) lining the insides of the breathing tubes in your lungs, fine particles are too tiny to be trapped and expelled. They drift all the way down to the tips of the lungs and collect in the alveoli (tiny air sacs that deliver oxygen to the bloodstream). And that means reduced lung capacity. "The smaller the particles, the deeper the penetration," says Kenneth Maybee, the Canadian Lung Association's chair for environmental issues, noting that the particles can irritate, inflame or permanently damage lung tissue.
In essence, inflammation from prolonged exposure "can lead to a remodelling of the airways, so you get structural changes in the airways, making them thicker and narrower," says Brauer.
The impact of environmental pollutants on the respiratory health of Canadians is huge. Each year in Canada patients with COPD spend 1.7 million days in hospital and nearly 10,000 die. Environmental contaminants cause up to 3,000 deaths and 500,000 days in hospital for Canadians with COPD. Each year Canadians with asthma spend up to 58,000 days in hospital and suffer as many as 1.9 million restricted activity days as a result of environmental exposures.
Click to continue for more information on how environmental contaminants can cause cancer...
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