Inhaling a heart attack

Research links smog to devastating effects not just on lungs but on hearts, brains and fetal development.

By Greg Critser
LA Times
June 23, 2009

Not long ago, Jesus Araujo, a cardiology researcher at UCLA, parked a cage full of transgenic mice alongside the 110 Freeway. As a control, he placed another group in a less-polluted space on the Westside. Araujo was interested in learning more about how smog affects the heart and whether bad air could help explain the persistence of heart disease after 25 years of cholesterol management, statins and endless lifestyle advice.

On collecting the mice several weeks later, Araujo made a troubling discovery: The mice exposed to freeway air presented a terrible blood profile. Their HDL, the so-called good cholesterol, had been rendered dysfunctional.

"We've known for some time that bad air is associated with heart problems," Araujo said. "But this got our attention."

The ultrafine particles in polluted air, he posited, "could be undermining so much of the progress we've made in this area."

(More here.)