Air pollution may add to higher CVD risk in blacks
Increased exposure to air pollution may contribute to the higher risk of heart disease found in the black population, researchers reported in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
“Previous studies showed chronic exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5)—a component of air pollution emitted from vehicles, factories, power plants, fires and second-hand smoke—is associated with increased cardiovascular risk and death,” lead author Sebhat Erqou, MD, PhD, a fellow in cardiovascular disease at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a press release.
“Data also indicates that minorities are more likely to live in areas close to pollution sources, including heavy roadway traffic areas. However, racial differences in the exposure to air pollution and their role in disparities in cardiovascular risk and death have not been fully explained.”
Erqou and coauthors merged data on PM2.5 and black carbon in the Pittsburgh area with a community-based study including 1,717 participants from western Pennsylvania. Sixty-six percent of participants were women and 45 percent were black.
On average, blacks had higher exposures to both forms of air pollutants and a 45 percent higher risk of cardiovascular events and death from any cause after adjustment for traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors.
“Exposures to PM2.5 were associated with elevated blood glucose, worse endothelial function, and incident CVD events and all-cause mortality,” Erqou et al. wrote. “Compared with whites, blacks had higher rate of CVD events and all-cause mortality that was partly explained by higher exposure to PM2.5. Further larger-sized, multicenter studies can help to better understand the role and mechanisms of environmental pollution exposures in racial differences in cardiovascular risk and outcomes.”
The authors noted black carbon wasn’t significantly associated with clinical outcomes, suggesting other forms of air pollutants such as PM2.5 are more important for cardiovascular risk. However, they couldn’t attribute all of the increased risk to air pollution because socioeconomic factors also played a role in the results—and it’s difficult to separate those variables and evaluate them individually.
“Race may be more reflective of the social construct of ethnicity rather than underlying biological differences and hence has more likelihood of being confounded by social factors, such as education and income,” the researchers wrote.
Limitations of the study include that it was confined to one region and there were no data on the length of participants’ residence in each location, which would have impacted their long-term exposure to pollution.
Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.