Pollution Free Cities: The Link between Air Pollution and Hypertension

Thursday, November 19, 2015

The Link between Air Pollution and Hypertension

English: Main complications of persistent high blood pressure. Sources are found in main article: Wikipedia:Hypertension#Complications. To discuss image, please see Template_talk:Häggström diagrams. To edit, please use the svg version, convert to png and update both versions online. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure and Blood Pressure in the Sister Study (8 page pdf, Stephanie H. Chan, Victor C. Van Hee, Silas Bergen, Adam A. Szpiro, Lisa A. DeRoo, Stephanie J. London, Julian D. Marshall, Joel D. Kaufman, and Dale P. Sandler, Environ Health Perspect, Oct. 1, 2015)

Today we review research conducted across a wide area with a large sample made up of sisters of women with breast cancer with the aim to find out the mechanisms between particulate and NO2 pollution and heart disease. The authors found that long term air pollution from PM2.5 and NO2 is closely associated with higher blood pressure and hypertension.

Key Quotes:

“Increased BP [blood pressure]is a strong risk factor for CVD [cardiovascular disease] including increases in left ventricular mass, which have been associated with long-term air pollution exposures”

“This is the first large national cohort studied with individual BP measurements and the use of advanced modeling methods to assess fine-scale intraurban gradients in major criteria air pollutants, PM2.5 and NO2”

“Our study demonstrates an association between increases in long-term residential exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 and higher measures of blood pressure (SBP, PP, and MAP for PM2.5 and PP for NO2).”

“Because air pollution exposure is experienced at a population level, even a small pro-hypertensive response to long-term air pollution exposures could contribute significantly to CVD.”

“Our findings suggest that chronic PM2.5 exposure may lead to increases in both SBP [systolic BP ]and PP[pulse pressure], and that chronic NO2 exposure may increase PP. These findings are consistent with our hypothesis that air pollution leads to CVD through mechanisms involving increased BP, potentially via the long-term vascular remodeling that accompanies chronic autonomic dysfunction or inflammation and oxidative stress.”