14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists with the Department of Epidemiology, in Rome, Italy, argue in a new study that the incidence of conditions such as heart attacks and angina is higher among those who are constantly exposed to higher levels of particulate matter pollution in the atmosphere.
One of the more worrying conclusions of the study is that this link appears to be preserved even at pollution levels that are well below those considered safe by authorities in the European Union. The new paper suggests that the EU should lower its emissions limits for particulate matter air pollution.
Details of the research appear in a paper published in the January 21 online issue of the British Medical Journal. Official statistics cited by the scientists indicate that as many as 3.2 million deaths occur every year globally on account of exposure to this type of pollution.
For many years, the precise phenomena linking air pollution exposure and coronary events have remained elusive and controversial to researchers. The new study, coordinated by experts at the University of Utrecht, sheds some more light on these issues.
The research was led on 11 test subject cohorts that are a part of the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE). A series of mathematical models were used to determine how pollution is tied to heart issues in more than 100,000 people, and over a period of 15 years.
The group explains that a total of 5,157 participants suffered from coronary events during the study period. After correcting for the influence of other risk factors, experts found that the incidence of coronary events increased by 13 percent when the atmospheric concentration of particular matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers exceeded 5 micrograms per square meter.
“Our study suggests an association between long term exposure to particulate matter and incidence of coronary events,” the research team writes in their BMJ presentation. They add that these results “support lowering of European limits for particulate air pollution to adequately protect public health.”
These findings may be used to inform public policies in a variety of European cities, the European Union as a whole, and in areas of China, such as Beijing, where people can no longer even see the Sun on account of smog, EurekAlert reports.