Air pollution raises heart attack risk
Long-term exposure to air pollution can significantly increase the odds of having a heart attack, new science in Environmental Health Perspectives finds.
Researchers examined more than a decade of data on people participating in a multi-year health study, finding their heart attack risk increased as much as 20%, depending on their type of air pollution exposure.
The highest risk came from exposure to PM10, particle pollution that is 10 microns or less in size that can be inhaled into the lungs. Common sources of PM10 include motor vehicle exhaust, wildfire smoke and factory emissions. Heart attack risks also increased with chronic exposure to fine-particle pollution and nitrogen oxide.
Higher heart attacks risks were found even at air pollution levels that fell below international air quality guidelines, researchers noted.
People who had a familial predisposition for heart attack, as determined through their genetic data, were particularly endangered by air pollutants. Compared to people with low genetic risk and low pollutant exposure, people with high genetic risk and high pollutant exposure were about 320% more likely to have a related heart attack.
Frequent ED visits during pregnancy may signal greater problems
Women who make numerous visits for emergency care during pregnancy are more likely to experience life-threatening complications, a new study says.
Published Oct. 16 in JAMA Network Open, the research found that as the number of unscheduled hospital visits by pregnant women increased, so did the odds they would experience severe complications at childbirth.
Women who had four or more emergency visits were significantly more likely to experience severe complications — such as blood clots, high blood pressure, bleeding or cardiovascular disease — than women who made no emergency visits during their pregnancies.
Overall, about 18% of pregnant women in the study made one emergency visit, while about 3% made four or more.
Hispanic and Black women were more likely to make four or more such visits during their pregnancies than women of other races and ethnicities. Women with public health insurance, lower education levels or those who had been hospitalized for opioid use in the past year were also more likely to have more visits.
Previous research has found many women who die during pregnancy make an unscheduled care visit in the month before their death. Women who have emergency hospital visits during pregnancy are more likely to have unmet medical or mental health needs, such as a lack of adequate prenatal care or support.
The new findings show that patients are “knocking on hospital doors seeking assistance,” study authors said. As many as 60,000 pregnant women in the U.S. experience unexpected life-threatening complications — also known as severe maternal morbidity — annually.
Race and ethnicity may play a role in stroke treatment
A patient’s race, insurance and other non-medical factors could decide whether life-saving treatments are given after a stroke, new findings shows.
Researchers examined data on almost 140,000 people in Texas who had ischemic strokes, which are caused by a blockage of blood flow to the brain, are the most common type of stroke. They found that 12% received clot-busting medications and 4% received a thrombectomy — both common life-saving measures. Thrombectomy removes blood clots from arteries via surgery, while thrombolytic therapy uses medications to break up clots.
However, Black people were 20% less likely to receive the medications and 25% less likely to receive a thrombectomy than white people. Hispanic people were 6% less likely to receive the drugs and 8% less likely to receive a thrombectomy than white people, according to the study in Neurology.
When taking insurance coverage into consideration, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center researchers found uninsured patients were 12% less likely to receive clot-busting drugs than those with private insurance.
Whether a treatment is used may be guided by factors such as how much time has passed since the stroke occurred and whether a patient has chronic health conditions, but the new study also showed non-medical issues may play a role.
The researchers noted that as Texas has the nation’s highest percentage of uninsured people and the largest rural Hispanic population, the results may not reflect what’s happening in other states. However, previous research has also found social factors influence which treatments stroke treatments patients receive in other places.
Other recent public health news of note includes:
• Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults, who have historically been grouped with Asian adults in U.S. health monitoring, have some of the nation’s highest rates of cardiovascular disease deaths, reports a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine that used disaggregated data.
• Fish that live far from sources of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, can build up high levels of the chemicals in their flesh, according to a new study in Environmental Science & Technology.
• Polychlorinated biphenyls, also known as PCBs, may be closely involved in the development and progression of multiple diseases, according to a provisionally accepted study in Frontiers in Public Health. While the chemicals were banned from manufacture more than two decades ago, they are still found in the environment and outdated consumer products.
• Climate change is extending the reach of mosquito-borne diseases. But few Americans know their symptoms or are concerned about being infected by them, finds an Annenberg Public Policy Center survey. Rates of tick-borne babesiosis, which can cause flu-like symptoms or more severe illness, are also on the rise from climate change, says research in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, with many patients co-infected with other tick-borne diseases.
• Nearly all pregnant women unknowingly ingest a type of mold that mimics estrogen in the human body, according to a study in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. Zearalenone — a fungus that is common in crops such as corn, wheat and barley and food products made from them — interferes with reproduction in some animals.
• Direct greenhouse gas emissions from large stationary sources — such as power plants and industries dealing with petroleum, natural gas and waste —fell about 4% from 2022 to 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency reported Oct. 15. Large stationary sources generate about half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public health journalist.
