Polluted air causes hardening and blockage of the arteries Did you ever see somebody killed by pollution? That phrase was the ending conclusion of a popular blog commentary.
During our modern times of promoting purity of the air we breath, this question couldn't be more relevant.
Direct evidence of deleterious effects of pollution on human health is often difficult to prove except in cases of acute intoxication.
There are several examples in which sadly the most famous being the "Great Smog of London" in December 1952, that resulted in 3000 deaths in one week.
A total of 12,000 deaths were attributed to this smog during the following year.
These intoxication's, like many others of the same kind, had the effect of encouraging researchers to study and examine the effect's of air pollution on health, at a lower dose, but over longer period of times.
The action of burning fossil fuels fill's the ambient air with fine particle whose effect on the health of the heart begins to be understood.
Worldwide, experiments were made by different teams of researchers.
The grouping of those combines data s results are.
Inhaling fumes from exhaust pipes increases blood clotting and oxidative stress in arteries, decreases circulation in the vessels of the heart muscle, an increases arterial pressure, and arythmics of thrombosis.
By these effects, several studies show that pollution induced atherosclerosis in hardening and blockage of arteries that can eventually lead to a lack of blood to tissues and organs.
A 2007 study by a German scientists has shown that people living closer than 50 meters from a busy highway had 63 percent higher coronary calcification than those living farther than 200 meters from the same highway.
This study and others are answers to the questions by a famous doctor asking himself for years when He monitor the hearts calcifications of many of his patients.
Why do some patients have so much calcifications in their arteries and others not, despite a similar risk factor.
The answer lies in the fact that our bodies react differently to environmental conditions.
Indeed, studies from China to Taiwan, Portugal, Finland and in nine major American cities demonstrated that a higher rate of fine particles in ambient air leads to an increase in mortality from cerebral vascular accident.
Also as a result of episodes of atmospheric pollution in Boston, we noticed an increase of 48 percent of acute infactus within two hours and 69 percent within 24 hours after the peak.
This also explains why the hospitals emergencies become so crouded during high episodes of smog.
Conversely, the beneficial effect's of antipollution standards can also be measured: A decrease of 10 ug/m3 of fine ambient air particles results in a longer life span amelioration of 0.
6 year of life.
So, measures to improve the air quality would have a similar effect as anti-smoking measures in place in public spaces and that leads to lowering of hospitalizations for acute infactus.
It is not up to the cardiologist to determine the best way to reduce air pollution.
But it appears clear that alternative sources of energy must be quickly developed and going green is not a new fad, it is also a better health issue