Article Title: High levels of air pollution linked to heart attacks: study
Date published: Thursday, February 21, 2013
By: Reuters
Publisher: NY Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/air-pollution-linked-heart-attacks-study-article-1.1270124#ixzz2LaEsFAME |
Picture:
Hazy Los Angeles, as seen
through smog. Researchers suggest that people take precautions while in the city if they have heart conditions. Thick ozone and pollution particles have harmful effects on the body.(picture courtesy of Lucy Nicholson http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1270122.1361484110!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/ozone22f-1-web.jpg )
Summary:
According to a recent study in Texas, cardiac arrests are more likely to occur in areas with high air pollution (mainly in cities). Scientists already knew the effects that ozone and soot-like particles had on the lungs, but the fact that they can stop a heart from beating is entirely new knowledge. What makes this evidence more shocking, is that less than 10 percent of the 300,000 people who experience cardiac arrests outside of the hospital each year, will end up surviving. Lead author of the publication, Katherine Ensor, got her results by reviewing the database of all of the cardiac arrests experienced outside of hospitals in Houston between 2004 and 2001, based on air quality. From these sources, the team of researchers found that there were more cases when ozone levels were higher than average. To be specific, the frequency of cardiac arrest went up by 4.4 percent each 20 parts per billion (ppb) of ozone above the regular amount. Typically, the ppb of ozone is between 50 and 60, according to a study by the EPA over a ten year span, and your body will start to suffer around 70 ppb. Aside from ozone, there are also extra fine particles of pollution that caused cardiac arrests to rise by approximately 4.6 percent for each 6 micrograms of it per cubic meter of air. Even though the research clearly shows a link between air pollution and heart problems, the scientists don't exactly know why it is happening. They said that a likely probability could be that "irritants like particles and ozone entering the respiratory system
create inflammation and a spike in destructive molecules called free
radicals, which in turn can stress the heart."
Opinion/Reflection:
I knew that air pollution and smog could affect your lungs, but your heart? It's interesting to see how far the dangers of an unhealthy environment reaches. This news is very concerning to me, because heart problems account for most of the deaths in the United States per year, and this is just another way that these deaths are being caused. This is just another call to action for having healthy industrial habits and stricter air regulations.
Questions:
1.) About how many places does this information apply to, and where is the worst level of pollution in the world? Does it spread to more rural areas?
2.) How come this isn't talked about by major news stations and the media? If they talk about other, unimportant topics, why don't that talk about a major health concern stretching across the world?
3.) What would be the quickest solution to this problem? Demanding cleaner factories? Or tighter air quality policies?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m3u-m1l5nk
ReplyDeleteI found this video on YouTube dealing with this exact topic, though it hasn't really passed the 2 views mark. Regardless of that, as well as its corniness, the video (which is about a minute and a half long) does a good job of explaining everything you did, which is that pollution can directly affect the human heart. The video, I felt, expanded on this topic because it started discussing ways in which you can protect yourself from CO2 in the air. If you watch it, you'll see all the handy tips!
2.) How come this isn't talked about by major news stations and the media? If they talk about other, unimportant topics, why don't that talk about a major health concern stretching across the world?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: I think that the mainstream media doesn't talk about things like this because to a lot of people in America, global warming isn't important. Some people believe that global warming isn't even happening. I also think that if news stations were to talk about this topic, it may cause an outrage in the city that people live in. If people were informed that factories were causing more harm to them than previously thought, people would protest for things such as the closing of factories.
3.) What would be the quickest solution to this problem? Demanding cleaner factories? Or tighter air quality policies?
Answer: I think that a good solution to this problem would be demanding cleaner factories. There aren't many ways to keep tighter air policies because it would be hard to keep track of which factories were producing which amount of CO2. Many forms of energy could be used other than fossil fuels. Solar energy is a really efficient way to power thing without causing a lot of pollution. If factories were to switch to an alternate power source, it could save many lives, while still producing the things they need to. There are many ways to clean up the atmosphere and demanding cleaner factories is a superb way to do it.
I decided to e-mail Katherine Ensor, who is the Chair of the Department of Statistics at Rice University. She is also one of the people who analyzed the data that showed the correlation between the amount of air pollution and the number of heart attacks. I also thought she would be a good choice because she has a Ph. D in Statistics and is the Faculty Lead for the Professional M.S. in Environmental Analysis and Decision Making Program, and would know more about this topic, the data and what it means. Furthermore, as she was one of the people who found the link between air pollution and cardiac arrests, she would be the best choice to explain her own research.
ReplyDeleteCopy of the e-mail I sent:
Hello, my name is Jialin, and I am part of a student blog group called "Grass Heads. One of my classmates, Ryan Barrett, recently read an article about the relationship between higher levels of pollutants in the air and the number of heart attacks that occur in urban areas, and blogged about it. We would be interested in learning more about the subject and would be very grateful if you could comment on our blog.
Here is the link to the blog post: http://grass-heads.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post-4-ryan-barrett.html#comment-form
Thank you for your time,
The Grass Heads
After reading this summary, I was shocked at how impactful this is on society in general. Before I read this article, I never thought that air pollution was a problem in America, but the statistics show otherwise. It is crazy to think that there are many issues, like and including this one, that impact so many people, yet very few people have heard anything about them. Still, like Ryan mentioned, the media neglects these issues, and throws in things that do not really matter compared to this.
ReplyDeleteQuestions
1) When did air pollution start to be considered dangerous to human health? Could it become lethal?
2) How much can people be held responsible? Does all the blame fall on industry, or does everyday tasks such as driving our cars make up a significant portion of blame?
3) How could we modify our current lifestyle to decrease air pollution? Is it something we could get everyone to do?