Clean air is vital for those with heart conditions

Air pollution may bring sooty car fumes, smoky chimneys and deadly smogs to mind, but the truth is that toxic air is all around us, even when we can’t see it.

The harmful effects of minuscule particles like PM2.5 can have lasting consequences. They can increase your risk of a heart attack or stroke – conditions that can be fatal. Up to 11,000 heart and circulatory disease deaths each year are attributable to air pollution in the UK.

In addition, research on air pollution has shown it can worsen existing heart and circulatory conditions, such as symptoms of angina, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and others. Cleaner air isn’t just a nice thing to have – it is vital to help people live healthier and longer lives.

With climate change high on the political agenda, the timing has never been better to clean up our dirty air. The British Heart Foundation is raising awareness of the harmful health effects of air pollution and demanding change.

Learning about how pollution affects us is key to driving change

Finding out exactly how toxic air affects us when we step outside is crucial to driving change and cleaning up our air. That’s why the BHF has funded £5.8million of air pollution research.

Take the work of Dr Mark Miller and BHF Professor David Newby, as an example. Their team of researchers at the University of Edinburgh carried out a study asking healthy volunteers to breathe in harmless gold nanoparticles. These nanoparticles were designed to mimic the smallest particles created by diesel exhaust fumes.

They found that the gold moved from the lungs into the volunteers’ blood and urine within just 24 hours and could even be detected in the blood three months after exposure. Not only that, but the area where the nanoparticles built up was within the fatty plaques of diseased arteries in people at high risk of stroke.