Kevin Laliberte
Editor, Smoky River Express

Air pollution is a rising and pervasive threat to cardiovascular health, but most Canadians don’t realize the danger, says the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. In its annual report on Canadians’ health recently released, the foundation said short-and long-term exposure to year-round air pollution is contributing to thousands of deaths in Canada each year. About 6,000 Canadians die annually because of short-term exposure to air pollution alone, said the report, and 69 per cent of those deaths result from cardiovascular events such as heart attack or stroke. “It’s an important and emerging risk factor,” Toronto cardiologist Beth Abramson told a news conference to release the report, which also graded provinces on their air quality. “We still need to pay attention to the traditional risk factors for heart disease - high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, being overweight, being out of shape (and) high cholesterol - but this is an additional risk factor that we can actually influence and influence the risk for others as a community,” she said. “Local air pollution can be derived from many different sources, including factories, cars, diesel trucks, power plants, wind-blown dust and smoke from wood stoves and back-yard burning,” Abramson noted. And poor air quality isn’t a phenomenon restricted to large cities with pollution-spewing vehicles and industrial sites, she said. Residents in rural areas that might seem environmentally more pristine are also bearing the brunt of bad air. “Air pollution can also be exported across long distances, as much as 800 kilometres for PM2.5.” The Heart and Stroke Foundation is calling on the federal and provincial governments to implement a number of measures, including legislating stricter pollution standards and expanding the daily Air Quality Health Index to communities across the country so at-risk Canadians can limit outdoor activities on high pollution days. Abramson said some people are more vulnerable to air-borne pollutants than others, in particular the elderly and those already at risk for cardiovascular disease like diabetics, and she advised that people moderate their outdoor activities when pollution is high. “Unfortunately, people who are trying to lead a heart-healthy life by being physically active actually are exposing themselves to more risk on bad air days ... if they go outside to exercise.” Alberta earned a “D” because pollution blows out of the province into neighbouring provinces and the United States from resource-based industrial areas like tar sands. Stephen Samis, director of health policy for the foundation, said a survey the organization commissioned of more than 1,100 Canadian adults showed that six in 10 believe air quality in their community is generally good to excellent, but just three per cent knew air pollution is a year-round problem. “It’s important to realize that air pollution is not just a summer and urban problem, it’s a winter and rural problem as well,” Samis said. “In fact, during winter months, wood-burning stoves and fire places can be sources of dangerous air pollution, particularly in rural areas.” The survey found wood-burning stoves and fireplaces are responsible for 28 per cent of fine particulate matter pollution in Canada and that 44 per cent of those living in communities of less than 10,000 residents have a wood stove, pellet stove or fireplace; of those, 70 per cent use it daily or almost daily during winter. Dr. Robert Brook, a University of Michigan cardiologist and an expert on air pollution and cardiovascular disease, said breathing in high levels of PM2.5 (each particle is one-fifth the width of a human hair) is believed to impair blood vessel function or possibly the nervous system’s control over the heart. “It is in several ways a trigger of cardiovascular events (in individuals). It is also a contributor to the overall public health incidence of cardiovascular events in several different countries,” he said, noting that the World Health Organization ranks outdoor air pollution as the 13th leading cause of illness worldwide.

Copyright © 2002 Smoky River Express. All Rights Reserved.
No part may be reproduced without written permission.

View our Privacy Statement.
Send website suggestions to the Webmaster