Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Injury

Recently the American College of Cardiology published an article in the Journal of American College of Cardiology (JACC) stating that air pollution has both short and long term toxic effects. They say toxins injure the heart and blood vessel, increase the rates of hospitalization for cardiac illness, and can even cause death.1 That's a big statement for these guys. Here they are actually saying that even long-term toxic exposure can increase free radical production which goes on to damage cells, the lungs and has very harmful effects in the heart and cardiovascular system. They're saying they know that air pollution is bad for the heart and other organs. The advice they are giving to people with cardiovascular disease is to not exercise outdoors on days with increased air pollution levels. And finally they say that the real solution to this problem is to reduce air pollution. That's right. Reduce air pollution.

1 Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Injury
Epidemiology, Toxicology, and Mechanisms
Boris Z. Simkhovich, MD, PhD*,, Michael T. Kleinman, PhD and Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD, FACC*,,*

* The Heart Institute, Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles, California
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Department of Community and Environmental Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California.

Manuscript received January 14, 2008; revised manuscript received May 14, 2008, accepted May 19, 2008.

* Reprint requests and correspondence: Dr. Robert A. Kloner, The Heart Institute, Good Samaritan Hospital, 1225 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90017 (Email: rkloner@goodsam.org).