Tags : gridlock
Study: Gridlock Connected To Heart Attacks
Toronto, Ontario (AHN) – A new University of Toronto study connects road gridlock with heart attacks. According to a research led by air pollution expert Bruce Urch, tailpipe emissions could elevate blood pressure and cause vessel constriction, which may be deadly for people with clogged coronary arteries.
Urch said arteriosclerosis patients are endangered by high pollution levels because it can constrict their coronary blood vessels. For people with vessels already 95 percent blocked, just a little reduction in their artery flow would be fatal. Or sudden inflammation of the artery could cause plaque deposits lining the vessels to break off into clots and trigger a heart attack.
The study had 83 healthy student participants, 33 were from Toronto and 50 from Michigan. It used a special equipment to suck in Toronto air, which was mixed with ozone, to create air twice as smoggy in urban centers. The volunteers were then made to wear face masks which they used for two-hour stretches while they sat inside glass booths and subjected to the extremely polluted air.
The students’ blood pressure were taken afterward. Their diastolic readings went up from 2.9 to 3.6 mm Hg for the Toronto students and 2.5 to 4 mm Hg for the Ann Arbor students. Such levels of elevation are manageable for a healthy person, but could be deadly for people with hypertension, respiratory or heart ailment.
However, only particles from Toronto impaired the body’s endothelial function through slower proinflammatory pathways. This finding showed that the location of pollution exposure plays a vital role in determining its consequences to a person’s health.
The study, which came out in the July issue of the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Journal, was initiated by the Southern Ontario Center for Atmospheric Aerosol Research.
Related posts:
