Blazes linked to heart attacks
SMOKE pollution caused by this summer’s raging bushfires has been linked to a 10 per cent spike in cardiac arrests in at least one hospital.
And a new study published today has found for every 10 per cent increase in air pollution, there is a 4 per cent rise in cardiac arrests, where a person’s heart stops pumping blood around their body and they stop breathing normally.
In the biggest-ever study of acute air pollution published in journal The Lancet Planet Health, University of Sydney cardiologist Professor Kazuaki Negishi warned even air pollution levels rated as safe could trigger cardiac arrest.
“Even when air quality was good, people had cardiac events, and those who were aged more than 65 were affected more, the young less so,” he said.
Even short-term exposure to the pollutants was enough to trigger a cardiac arrest, the research found.
The study calls for a rethink on air pollution standards because the increase in cardiac arrests occurred even when air pollution levels met World Health Organisation standards.
“Short-term exposure to PM2.5 was associated with an increased risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, even at relatively low concentrations,” the study found.
“Regulatory standards and targets need to incorporate the potential health gains from continual air quality improvement, even in locations already meeting WHO standards.”
Prof Negishi says when people breathe in air pollution like smoke, it gets into their bloodstream and there are three main ways it can trigger cardiac arrest:
• the pollution can trigger plaque build-up in a person’s blood vessels to rupture and block the blood vessels;
• air pollution can generate inflammation in the lungs, which triggers a cardiac arrest attack; and
REGULATORY STANDARDS NEED TO INCORPORATE POTENTIAL HEALTH GAINS FROM AIR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
• air pollution can disturb the body’s sympathetic nervous system, which serves to accelerate the heart rate, constrict blood vessels, and raise blood pressure.
The University of Sydney academic, who also works as a cardiologist at Nepean Hospital, said he had tracked a 10 per cent increase in cardiac arrests at the hospital in the past three months when air pollution was high when compared with 2017 and 2018.
Air pollution could also provoke asthma attacks, make lung disease and other breathing problems worse and impact a person’s mental health, Prof Negishi said.