Particulate air pollution bad for heart health
May 20th, 2010 - 1:38 pm ICT by ANIWashington, May 20 (ANI): Penn State College of Medicine researchers say that breathing polluted air increases stress on the heart’s regulation capacity, up to six hours after inhalation of combustion-related small particles called PM2.5.
This high stress may contribute to cardiovascular diseases, said Duanping Liao, professor of public health sciences.
The body’s ability to properly regulate heartbeat so the heart can pump the appropriate amounts of blood into the circulation system relies on the stability of the heart’s electrical activity, called electrophysiology.
“Air pollution is associated with cardiopulmonary mortality and morbidity, and it is generally accepted that impaired heart electrophysiology is one of the underlying mechanisms,” said Fan He, master’s program graduate, Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine.
“This impairment is exhibited through fluctuations in the heart rate from beat to beat over an established period of time, known as heart rate variability. It is also exhibited through a longer period for the electric activity to return to the baseline, known as ventricular repolarization.
“The time course, how long it would take from exposure to cardiac response, has not been systematically investigated,” said He. “We conducted this study to investigate the relationship between particle matter and heart electrophysiology impairment, especially the time course.”
The team’s study amongst 106 people from central Pennsylvania indicated that heart electrophysiology was affected up to six hours after elevated PM2.5 exposure.
PM2.5 refers to particles up to 2.5 micrometers in size - released by diesel engine, coal, oil, gas or wood combustion. PM2.5 levels are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Our findings may contribute to further understanding of the pathophysiology of air pollution-related cardiac events, specifically our results indicating elevated PM2.5 exposure is associated with immediate disturbance of cardiac electrical activities within six hours after exposure,” said Liao.
The results were published in recent issues of the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology and in Environmental Health Prospective. (ANI)
- Nitrogen dioxide exposure lowers in vitro fertilization success - Apr 13, 2010
- Delhi air quality was worst in March: Study - Apr 02, 2012
- Spending even two hours in traffic can cause heart problems - Jan 23, 2010
- Prenatal exposure to pollutants linked to behavioural problems in children - Apr 13, 2011
- High pollution levels ups heart attack chances - Sep 21, 2011
- Air pollution can stop woman getting pregnant through IVF - May 12, 2010
- Insomnia linked to impaired heart rate variability in kids - Mar 03, 2010
- Electric cars cause more pollution than petrol ones: Study - Feb 14, 2012
- Pollution 'can cause obesity and diabetes' - Dec 28, 2010
- Insomniac kids may have impaired heart rate variability - Mar 22, 2010
- Air at Games Village, venues polluted, shows study - Oct 11, 2010
- Exposure to vehicle pollution causes brain damage in mice - Apr 08, 2011
- What will change with revised air quality standards? - Nov 18, 2009
- How air pollution can aggravate heart problems - Mar 10, 2011
- Study finds strong link between diabetes and air pollution - Sep 30, 2010
Tags: cardiac events, cardiovascular diseases, central pennsylvania, circulation system, coal oil, college of medicine, department of public health, environmental protection agency, graduate department, heart rate variability, mortality and morbidity, particle matter, particulate air pollution, penn state college, penn state college of medicine, polluted air, program graduate, public health sciences, ventricular repolarization, wood combustion