Points

• Environmental stressors that negatively affect cardiovascular fitness include polluted air and severe temperatures, yet these impacts have largely gone unnoticed.
• Recently, a cohort of cardiologists has ensured that the effects on the heart are also taken into account in addition to the call to address the current and impending tragedies brought on by climate change.
• While we are facing an ecological catastrophe due to climate change, most people are unaware that cardiac illness is one of the many negative effects of pollutants.

Summary

According to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) collaboration, around nine million people died due to global pollution in 2019. More than five million of these were caused by heart disease.

Ambient particulate matter and residential polluted air are the two types of air pollution. The utilization of unclean solid fuels inside leads to most air pollution in homes (e.g., coal, wood, agricultural waste, etc.). In underdeveloped nations, it is a significant reducing factor in cardiac mortality rates, although it is not a significant problem in North America.

The excellent thing is that initiatives to improve the air quality in North America and Europe are succeeding. In the United States, tighter regulation has helped reduce pollutant concentrations, decreasing the risk of cardiovascular illness linked to smog. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which monitors environmental quality patterns using data from locations spread around the nation, reports that since 1980, wind quality has improved across the country as measured by levels of prevalent contaminants.

The unfortunate thing is that the combustion of fossil fuels is altering our atmosphere by causing higher quantities of high-temperature pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, in the Stratosphere, in addition to air pollution. These rising climate changes are causing more severe weather, hazardous heat waves, sharp spikes in bad air quality, a rise in flames, and other problems that are anticipated to impact public health negatively.

Numerous studies have documented how pollution can affect the full range of cardiac problems, including myocardial ischemia, hemorrhage, heart attack, worsening cardiovascular disease, and palpitations. The hazard ratio of severe cardiac events is increased by 1% to 3% within just a few days by increased levels of particulate matter in the atmosphere. Atrial fibrillation and sudden cardiac death have been linked to a higher risk of developing due to air pollution.

At first look, it would seem reasonable to assume that environmental threats like air pollution and excessive heat would be fatal to all people. Both disregard all kinds of limits. But, as with so many other things, less advantaged people are much more likely to suffer harm due to catastrophic weather occurrences.

Link to the article: https://www.acc.org/Latest-in-Cardiology/Articles/2022/10/01/01/42/Cover-Story-Environmental-Stress-and-Cardiovascular-Disease

References

Cardiology Magazine. (2022, October 28). Environmental Stress and Cardiovascular Disease. American College of Cardiology. https://www.acc.org/Latest-in-Cardiology/Articles/2022/10/01/01/42/Cover-Story-Environmental-Stress-and-Cardiovascular-Disease