Pollution raises blood pressure

LIVING in areas of high air pollution may cause high blood pressure, a Spanish study suggests.

Researchers at the Biomedical

Research Institute of Malaga and other institutes recruited 1,100 volunteers between 2009 and 2010, none of whom had high blood pressure.

They also looked at air-pollution levels where the volunteers lived and worked, specifically at concentrations of compounds named PM10 and PM2.5.

In 2016, the study group was reassessed, by which time 282 had developed high blood pressure. The scientists discovered that the volunteers who lived in areas where concentrations of PM10 and

PM2.5 were highest were almost 50 per cent more likely to have developed high blood pressure than those who lived in areas of least pollution.