Air pollution may increase stroke, heart attack risk

The study doesn't show that air pollution directly triggers strokes, although the researchers say that is biologically plausible.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Strokes more likely to occur immediately following periods when air quality drops
• Researchers estimate a 20% reduction in air pollution would have prevented 6,100 strokes
• Second study provides evidence that air pollution may increase cardiovascular risk

(Health.com) -- A brief uptick in traffic-related air pollution may be enough to increase a person's short-term risk of stroke, new research suggests.
An analysis of 10 years of data from a major Boston stroke center has found that strokes are more likely to occur immediately following 24-hour periods in which air quality drops into the range the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers "moderate."
"At levels that the EPA considers to be generally safe, we found an important effect of ambient air particles, which is one of many pollutants in the air, but an important one," says study coauthor Gregory A. Wallenius, Sc.D., an assistant professor of community health at Brown University Medical School, in Providence, Rhode Island. Wallenius collaborated with researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard School of Public Health, both in Boston...................
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