Air Pollution Might Make People 16% More Likely To Die From Heart Disease

Living in a neighborhood with high levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air could be wreaking havoc on people’s cardiovascular systems, particularly for those who are a part of low-income communities. According to a new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open, long-term exposure to high levels of PM2.5 — which is emitted from vehicles, smokestacks, construction work, and other human-driven activities — are at least 16% more likely to die from coronary heart disease and at a 10% higher risk of suffering from heart attacks.

In a press release, lead author Stacey E. Alexeeff, a biostatistician at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, warned that even those who live in regions where their air pollution exposure levels are below or at the level of current U.S. air quality standards are at the risk of suffering from a heart attack or dying from one.

“Our study clearly adds to the evidence that the current regulatory standards are not sufficient to protect the public,” said Alexeeff. “Our findings support the EPA’s analysis that lowering the standard to at least 10.0 micrograms per cubic meter is needed to protect the public. Our findings also suggest that lowering the standard to 8.0 micrograms per cubic meter may be needed to reduce the risk of heart attacks.”

The researchers included the data of 3.7 million adults who resided in California and were members of Kaiser Permanente from 2007 to 2016. More than half of them were women and white. Others were Asian (18.8%), Alaskan Native (0.5%), Black (7.6%), and Hispanic (4.6%). The team followed up with the participants for almost 10 years to determine a strong association between long-term PM2.5 exposure with cardiovascular diseases and mortality.

“We found strong evidence that neighborhood matters when it comes to exposures to this type of air pollution,” said co-author Stephen Van Den Eeden, from the Division of Research, in an official statement. “The strongest association between exposure to air pollution and risk of cardiovascular events in our study was seen in people who live in low socioeconomic areas, where there is often more industry, busier streets, and more highways.”

They could do this by using each participant’s address and then gleaning data on that geographical location’s air pollution or PM2.5 exposure levels every year. The researchers then tracked which adults were diagnosed with a heart attack or died from heart disease.

“Associations with incident acute myocardial infarction and ischemic heart disease mortality were present at moderate concentrations of PM2.5 below the current regulatory standard,” they wrote in the study. “Our findings of increased risk of ischemic heart disease mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality are very consistent with previous literature from numerous cohort studies, demonstrating the success of our novel big data approach.”

“Our findings add to growing evidence that the current regulatory standard of 12 μg/m3 set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not sufficiently protective of human health. Notably, most of the evidence of associations below 12 μg/m3 is based on mortality studies,” they concluded.