-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Bert Brunekreef, Traffic and the heart
, European Heart Journal, Volume 27, Issue 22, November 2006, Pages 2621–2622, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehl319The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the Editors of the European Heart Journal or of the European Society of Cardiology.
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
A small but growing body of evidence suggests that being near traffic may not be good for our hearts.
Time series studies have shown associations between various air pollution components and cardiovascular deaths and hospitalizations for the last 15 years or so.1 In these studies, the day-to-day variation in pollution levels is associated with day-to-day variations in cardiovascular death or hospitalization rates. Temporal pollution variations are largely driven by weather patterns, which by themselves may also affect cardiovascular health. How best to disentangle effects of meteorology and air pollution on the cardiovascular system has been the topic of heated debate.2 At current pollution levels in highly developed regions of the world, the estimated effects on cardiovascular mortality and morbidity are modest even on ‘high’ pollution days, being in the order of perhaps 5–10% excursions over baseline—but it has been impossible to identify a threshold below which no effect occurs, and all of these small, day-to-day health impacts add up to considerable numbers over years.3,4
