Re: Car fumes and traffic stress trigger heart attacks

From: paghat (paghatSPAM-ME-NOT_at_netscape.net)
Date: 10/21/04 

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 18:11:38 -0700

In article <4f28e591.0410201702.49a6e336@posting.google.com>,
rbystrianyk@gmail.com (Roman Bystrianyk) wrote:

> http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.php?event=news_print_list_item&id=343
>
> Jeremy Laurance, "Car fumes and traffic stress trigger heart attacks",
> Independent, October 21, 2004,
> Link: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=574416
>
> Travelling in traffic, either in a car or on public transport, almost
> trebles the risk of a heart attack for at least an hour afterwards, a
> study has found.
>
> Fumes from car exhausts, noise and stress brought on by traffic
> congestion are likely to be the main causes of the increase in risk,
> researchers say. Air pollution is known to be a factor in heart
> disease, which develops slowly over decades, and research has shown
> that people living close to a main road have twice the risk of dying
> from the condition.
>
> The findings are based on 691 heart attack survivors in the city of
> Augsburg in southern Germany who were interviewed by the national
> research centre for environment and health at Neuherberg about their
> activities in the four days before the attack. The researchers found
> that one hour before the attack happened, exposure to traffic was
> twice as frequent as at any other time.
>
> Most patients had been travelling by car but some had been on bicycles
> and others on buses and trolley cars. Women and those aged over 60 or
> with other conditions such as diabetes had the greatest increase in
> risk.
>
> Publishing their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, the
> authors estimate that 8 per cent of the heart attacks they studied
> were attributable to traffic. The triggers for a heart attack, which
> is a sudden event, are little understood, but, if the findings are
> confirmed, traffic will have to be added to the known list of
> triggers, which include outbursts of anger, strenuous exercise and use
> of cocaine.
>
> They say it is "unlikely that the effect is entirely attributable to
> the stress linked with driving a car" because people who travelled by
> public transport, including buses or trolley cars were equally
> affected.
>
> Pollution is likely to be the key factor. Particulates in the air
> expelled by vehicle exhausts have been shown to increase the
> stickiness of the blood when breathed in, which can lead to blood
> clots forming, as well as altering the function of the heart and blood
> vessels.
>
> "These changes have been observed in healthy officers of the highway
> patrol in association with the concentration of particulate matter in
> their vehicles and might be consistent with an increased risk of
> myocardial infarction [heart attack] after a transient elevation in
> the concentration of ambient particles in vulnerable subjects," the
> authors write.
>
> Studies have shown that passengers in cars and buses are exposed to a
> higher level of particulates from exhaust fumes than is measured 100
> metres or more from traffic on the road. People in cars or buses have
> twice the level of exposure of cyclists even though cyclists breathe
> more heavily and thus draw the particulates more deeply into their
> lungs.

Did you see the recent reports on increased incidents of illness among
infants, children & women in households where women are using various
spray-cans inside the house, such as table wax sprays or air-scent sprays?
I must've known something instinctively as I have never been tempted by
these hazardous products. They didn't mention Pam though with which I've
sprayed skillets; I suppose I'm screwed for using that.

-paghat the ratgirl 

-- 
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
   -from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

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