A recent U.S. study published by the New England Journal of Medicine has found significant links between small particle air pollution and heart disease and strokes in women. The researchers were based at the University of Washington and used data provided from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study involving 65,893 women in and around 36 U.S. cities. Of major importance in the WHI study was the establishment of a stronger statistical association between fine particulate air pollution and death from coronary heart disease than that found in previous studies.

The average particulate levels in the study ranged from about 4 micrograms to almost 20 micrograms per cubic meter. The researchers found that each 10 microgram rise was matched by a 76% increase in the chances of death from heart disease or stroke. Many of these particles are so tiny that it would take over 2 dozen to equal the thickness of a human hair.

It has long been known that particulates can contribute to lung and heart disease, with women perhaps more susceptible than men to heart problems because of their smaller blood vessels and other biological differences. Researchers believe that when dirty air is inhaled, invisible pollutants can become embedded in the lungs or travel through the bloodstream. They may then harden arteries or cause inflammation leading to cardiac disease or stroke. Unlike earlier studies, this one looked not just at deaths, but also at heart attacks, coronary disease, strokes and clogged arteries. In their calculations, the researchers tried to adjust for lower income and other health problems that have been blamed for the higher rates of disease in past studies.

Indoor air quality professionals have known for years that fine particulate air pollution can cause respiratory problems, especially in infants, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. The Environmental Protection Agency tightened its daily limit on exposure to fine particulates in September 2006, but left the annual limit at a concentration of 15 millionths of a gram for every cubic meter of air. Many health professionals and air quality experts felt that the new EPA rules didn’t go far enough to protect the public. Several environmental groups and individual states sued the EPA last year for disregarding advice from its own scientists regarding tighter rules on fine particulate matter. The EPA’s Air Quality Index provides daily updates, including fine particle pollution and can be found at http://airnow.gov/

Although there isn’t much you can do about outdoor air pollution, indoor air quality is something you can have control over. Commercial air cleaners are not just for businesses, they have residential applications as well. For example, the SE-400 can remove large quantities of airborne particles that enter your home. The unit features a tightly woven aluminum mesh pre-filter that first removes large particles. Next, the smaller particles are trapped by the collector cells, which collect the particles like strong magnets. Help reduce the threat to your health from fine particulate matter by using superior commercial air cleaners.

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 22, 2009; Page A15

Reducing air pollution has extended average life expectancy by five months for urban residents in dozens of U.S. cities over the past two decades, researchers found.

A team from Brigham Young and Harvard universities reached that conclusion based on data on changes in air quality and life expectancy between 1980 and 2000 in 51 cities, including Washington.

After taking into account the life-extending effects of other factors, including changes in population, income, education, migration, demographics and smoking, they calculated that cleaner air had lengthened urban dwellers’ life spans significantly — the first time researchers have been able to document an effect of improved air quality on longevity.

The researchers found that nationally, urban dwellers’ life expectancy rose by an average of 2.72 years from 1980 to 2000, and five months of that increase was attributed to breathing cleaner air.
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People in and around the District benefited more than most because the region has enjoyed a greater reduction in airborne fine particulate matter, or soot, which is linked to heart and respiratory diseases, than many other metropolitan areas.

Overall, D.C. area residents were living roughly three years longer in 2000 than in 1980, and more than seven months of that improvement was attributed to the drop in airborne soot.

Between 1980 and 2000, levels of this type of pollution fell by more than 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air in the metropolitan region, the study found. It was only 15 years ago that other researchers discovered the link between airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter (less than 4/100 the width of a human hair) and lung and heart disease.

C. Arden Pope III, lead author of the study published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, called the increase in life expectancy due to better air quality “remarkable.”

“We are getting a return on our investment,” said Pope, an epidemiologist and economics professor at Brigham Young University, adding that cutting air pollutants in major cities amounted to “a large, nationwide, natural experiment.”

Between 1980 and 2000, federal regulations on power plants, including the acid rain program, helped reduce smog ingredients such as sulfur dioxide significantly, while the installation of catalytic converters on vehicles cut nitrogen oxide pollution across the country.

Every five years the government evaluates whether it should tighten the standards for fine particulates. In September 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to keep the limit unchanged at 15 micrograms per cubic meter averaged over an entire year, but it tightened the maximum permissible in any one 24-hour period from 65 to 35 micrograms. Both the EPA’s scientific advisory panel and independent researchers urged the agency to impose a more stringent annual standard.

Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association, said she hoped the new findings would spur policymakers to tighten federal soot standards the next time they issue new regulations, scheduled for 2011.

“Air pollution shortens life, and when we reduce air pollution, it actually adds months to our life,” she said. “While it’s hard for people to see the connection, we can document it, and we know that the connection exists.”

Pope added that one of the encouraging aspects of the study, which was co-authored by Douglas Dockery and Majid Ezzati at the Harvard School of Public Health, is that further reductions in particulate matter continue to produce health benefits.

“There is room to improve,” Pope said, noting that even relatively clean cities can experience the benefits of cutting down more on airborne particulates. Furthermore, he said, “there’s a lot of room to improve in Chinese cities, and Indian cities, and cities throughout the world.”

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