NEW YORK - Women who live
within 50 meters of busy roads face an increased risk of dying from a heart
attack, stroke or other cardiopulmonary cause, according to a new study.
Exposure to particulate matter -- the tiny particles emitted by automobiles,
especially diesel vehicles -- is probably the cause for their increased
mortality, Dr. H.-Erich Wichmann, director of the Institute of Epidemiology of
the GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health in Neuherberg,
Germany, told Reuters Health.
Most studies on the health effects of pollution have focused on short-term
exposure, Wichmann and his team note in the September issue of Epidemiology.
To better understand the relationship between long-term exposure to pollution
and mortality, the researchers looked at roughly 4,800 women who had
participated in studies of women's health during the 1980s and 1990s, when they
were 50 to 59 years old.
This allowed the investigators to study the effects of 10 to 20 years of
pollution exposure, which they estimated by determining how far the women lived
from major roads and the amount of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter
measured by nearby air monitoring stations.
During the follow-up period, 8 percent of the women died, 3 percent from
cardiopulmonary causes.
According to the team, women who lived within a 50-meter radius of a busy
road were 70 percent more likely to die due to cardiopulmonary causes.
There is not much that people living close to heavy traffic can do to reduce
their exposure to particulate matter, Wichmann noted in an interview, as the
pollutant also finds its way indoors.
"The only effective measure is to reduce the concentration of these
particles, and especially for Germany, the most effective way would be to use
particle traps for diesel cars," he added.
There has been discussion of requiring traps on newly built cars, he said,
and to truly reduce the particulate matter it would also be necessary to
retro-fit old cars with the traps as well.
SOURCE: Epidemiology, September 2006.
