Environmental contaminants, such as chemicals in water and soil and light pollution, represent a greater health threat than war, terrorism, malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, drugs and alcohol combined, according to the review of scientific studies.
Researchers say there is an urgent need to improve the monitoring of these pollutants to identify groups of people most at risk, and better understand how exposure to specific pollutants raises the risk of cardiovascular disease for individuals.
Global study
Cardiovascular disease is the world’s biggest killer, causing more than 20 million deaths worldwide every year. Pollutants are known drivers of cardiovascular disease, and can affect the body in different ways.
Dr Mark Miller from the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cardiovascular Science joined forces with experts from across the world to better understand the true scale of how environmental pollution affects our health.
They brought together evidence of links between pollution and cardiovascular disease across populations, and laboratory studies that give insight into the biology underlying these effects.
One in five of all cardiovascular disease deaths are caused by air pollution, the findings show.
Wildfire risks
One of the fastest growing causes of death is exposure to wildfire smoke – an increasing occurrence owing to global warming – which is associated with inflammation in the lung and impaired heart function.
Smoke from wildfires has been estimated to be responsible for 339,000 to 675,000 premature deaths per year, the team found.
In the US alone there has been a 77 per cent increase in exposure to wildfire smoke since 2002, owing to greater incidence of fires.
New measures
The research team has called for changes to city design, such as safe spaces for exercise, reduced vehicle use and increasing tree cover, to enable better public health. They would also welcome more public health campaigns about the dangers of air pollution, and inclusion of the topic in medical training.
They also want an end to subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, to enable more investment in renewables and cleaner energy production. This would slow global warming and remove some of the most harmful pollutants from the air, experts say.
It is also hoped that routine testing may be introduced for exposure to more pollutants than at present.
The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, involved researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Global Observatory on Planetary Health Boston College, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, University Medical Centre Mainz, and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.