You smell the petrol fumes along a busy road, especially on hot summer days and you probably think yourself: that can’t be good for a person. A large study now shows once again: that is indeed not good.

The researchers cite air pollution in the same breath as high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking as factors that increase the risk of premature death. Air pollution, in particular, increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to scientists at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Icahn School of Medicine. People who are exposed to air pollution in the open air above average have a 20 percent higher chance of dying prematurely. The risk of dying from cardiovascular disease rose by 17 percent. The use of wood-burning stoves where the smoke is not completely removed also increases the risk of death by 23 percent. Living next to a busy road also increases your chance of dying, the researchers say.

Country

A minor caveat to this study is that it was conducted in a poor rural region in northeastern Iran. On the other hand, a lot of people have been examined: more than 50,000. They were all over 40 and had their health monitored annually by the researchers since 2004.

Traditionally, research has mainly focused on air pollution in urban areas in wealthier countries. The researchers, whose study appeared yesterday in the online journal PLOS ONE, see it as a plus that research has now been done in a poorer rural area. In this context, what also played a role in the increased risk of death was, for example, the distance to specialized hospitals, where they could anesthetize people with heart complaints. That led to an increased mortality risk of 1 percent for every 10 kilometers that the hospital was further away.

The results also showed that a third of the participants had a 13 percent higher risk of death because they lived within 500 meters of a main road. “Our study indicates that environmental factors, such as indoor and outdoor air pollution, access to modern healthcare and proximity to busy roads, play a role in death in general and mortality from cardiovascular disease in particular,” said senior researcher and cardiologist Rajesh. Vedanthan. “Our findings help broaden the risk profile for disease and look beyond age and traditional risk factors.” According to study leader cardiologist Michael Hadley, the study is very useful for policymakers. “They can make the air cleaner and thus improve people’s health.”

The researchers also included other environmental factors in their study, such as income level, population density and nighttime light exposure. Although previous research in cities indicated that those factors also influence mortality risk, this study did not show that.

New model

The research team has developed a new model to measure the overall mortality risk and the chance of death from cardiovascular disease. They also want to apply this model in other countries and argue that it can help to investigate the effectiveness of environmental and lifestyle changes in relation to mortality risk.

According to the World Health Organization, a quarter of all deaths worldwide now result from environmental factors, including poor air and water quality, lack of sanitation and exposure to toxic chemicals.

Box: Air Pollution Schiphol

It is, of course, far from the first study into the effects of air pollution on public health. Last week, a study by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) was published which showed that residents living in the vicinity of Schiphol suffer health damage due to emissions from aircraft and cars taking off and landing in the area. People who live near Schiphol are regularly exposed to increased concentrations of ultrafine particles, according to the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.

When the wind is in the wrong direction, complaints such as shortness of breath and wheezing increase. Children then use more medicines. But healthy adults also experience a ‘short-term reduction in lung function’ at times when the concentrations of ultrafine particles are elevated. According to the RIVM, the study says nothing about the long-term effects of increased exposure to ultrafine particles.