Studies link air pollution to heart failure and lung cancer

Air pollution is severely damaging to human health, resulting in heart problems and lung cancer, according to the results of two new studies. Both studies have been published in the Lancet Oncology journal and show the results of particulate pollution on human health on a greater scale than many other research projects.

The first study highlights the fact that the risk of dying from heart failure is greatly increased by even short-term exposure to air pollution. The British Heart Foundation funded the research, which was led by Nicholas Mills of Edinburgh University. The study found that people with weak hearts after suffering from heart failure are prone to being heavily affected by air pollution, so much so that it can actually lead to death.

The research used data from 35 previous studies that were performed worldwide. These studies had been performed on particulate pollution, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulphur dioxide levels in different areas of the world.

All of these forms of pollution, apart from Ozone, had strong correlations with the number of people that had died from heart failure or who had been hospitalised due to it, throughout the regions used for each study. It was found that the day of admission for heart failure patients had the worse levels of pollution, suggesting that pollution can set off heart problems.

The second study focused on the effect that air pollution has on lung cancer. This research used information collected from a range of 17 previous studies throughout European countries, covering 313,000 people. The study concentrated on the levels of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides and what effect this has on people's lungs. Of the participants recorded, 2,095 developed lung cancer at some point during the 13-year follow up from the initial research.

Ole Raaschou-Nielsen of the Danish Cancer Society led the study that found that if particulate pollution - particulate matter of under 2.5 micrometres - has an increase of five micrograms for each cubic meter, a person's chances of developing lung cancer increases by around 18 per cent. This risk is also increased by 22 per cent if particulate matter that has a diameter under ten micrometres increases by ten micrograms per cubic metre.