Air pollution named as leading cause in strokes

Posted by Jeff on Jun 12, 2016 @ 8:14 am in Conservation | 0 comments | Last modified: June 12, 2016

Each year, around 15 million people globally suffer from strokes and it is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. Scientists have long known that behavioral factors like diet, smoking, and exercise all contribute to those statistics, but now, a new study names another leading contributor: air pollution.

The study, funded by public health groups in the U.S. and New Zealand, found that environmental and household air pollution was associated with a third of global strokes in 2013. The number was significantly higher in developing countries (34 percent) than it was in developed countries (10 percent). From 1990 to 2013, strokes associated with environmental air pollution — the particulate matter that’s released by burning biomass and running cars — increased by over a third. The global burden of stroke from environmental air pollution is almost as bad as smoking.

Air pollution in the form of fine particulate matter ranked seventh in terms of its impact on healthy lifespan, while household air pollution from burning solid fuels ranked eighth.

Valery Feigin, director of the National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences at Auckland University of Technology, said that while he expected air pollution to emerge as a threat, the extent of the problem had taken researchers by surprise.

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