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CNN Live At Daybreak

Air Pollution may Increase Risk of Heart Disease

Aired June 12, 2001 - 07:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, perhaps easier said than done. Consider this, that 80 percent of the population in the United States lives in urban areas. So to find out a little bit more about this, we are joined by Joel Schwartz. He is an environmental epidemiologist at Harvard University.

Good morning Dr. Schwartz.

DR. JOEL SCHWARTZ, ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGIST, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Good morning.

LIN: I still don't quite understand how these particles getting into my system can cause a heart attack. What exactly happens internally?

SCHWARTZ: Well, we're beginning to tease that apart. What we found is that as particle levels go up, there are increases in clotting factors in the blood, which increases the risk of a blood clot causing a heart attack.

We found that there's increased signs of inflammation in the blood and inflammation causes the little plaques that are formed with hardening of the arteries to rupture and throw off pieces of material that gets stuck in the little arteries in the heart and produce a heart attack.

So, there are a number of different things that we see that make these results quite plausible.

LIN: But what we don't see, frankly, are people dropping on the streets from heart attacks in major cities, which have pollution problems like Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, even perhaps Boston.

SCHWARTZ: Well it's -- I mean we do see that. What we see is every day people come in with heart attacks. There are over 100, you know, heart attacks a day in some of the larger cities in the United States, and what we've found when we've done studies is on days with higher pollution, there are more heart attacks. On days with lower pollution, there are fewer. It just hasn't been noticeable until people have gone out and done these studies.

LIN: So, is it everybody who is affected? Can anyone suffer this kind of damage or is it people who are more predisposed because of, you know, preexisting heart conditions or genetics?

SCHWARTZ: Well, certainly there are things that predispose people. Recently, we found that diabetes is a predisposing factor. But the sad fact of the matter is that most Americans over the age of 50 have some atherosclerosis. We've got hardening of the arteries. So, while this isn't a problem for a healthy 25-year-old, once you start looking at people in their 50s and 60s, most of those people have some heart disease. They just don't know it.

LIN: Doctor, we're giving people a peek at their morning. Right now pictures coming in from Chicago. Previously, we saw Atlanta and even Boston, where you are this morning, so far. It looks kind of hazy but, perhaps, not too much pollution floating in the air, just yet.

So what should people do? I mean, should they avoid going outdoors altogether? Should we be wearing air filters?

SCHWARTZ: Well, you know, the -- I view this as an optimistic finding because once you've found that something is a risk factor for a heart attack, then you can do something about it. And, fortunately, we know exactly what to do about it. There are commercially available natural gas powered buses, which are being used by some cities in the United States.

The reason they're not being used by most cities is, basically, inertia, and inertia is just not a good excuse for killing people. So, what we need to do is get our municipal bus fleets to switch over to natural gas. That'll lower the level of diesel particles in the air, which are an important factor in cities.

The other things that we can do is we have 30 billion pounds of sulfur dioxide being emitted every year from coal-burning power plants. We can do something about that. The technology exists. The problem is that the old power plants were grandfathered from having to use the technology when the Clean Air Act was passed.

LIN: Dr. Schwartz, this is clearly a policy debate that's going on in Washington, D.C., right now. I'm asking you for some practical solutions, so that I don't have to hold my breath for my local government to institute these things in time for me to not have a heart attack.

SCHWARTZ: Well, I think you heard the basic one, which is being indoors with the air conditioning on reduces the amount of particles in your home that are leaking in from the outside. That's the good news. The bad news is that while it essentially eliminates the amount, the concentrations of some gas air pollutants, it only cuts the amount of particles in half. So, that's a lot better than doing nothing. On the other hand, you may not want to stay locked up in your home all day.

LIN: Good idea. Live for today. Thank you very much, Dr. Joel Schwartz, Harvard University.

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