Newswise
April 22, 2010

A post-mortem study of the hearts of 21 young people in Mexico City has found that the heart begins to show the adverse effects of air pollution at a young age and that tiny bits of inactivated bacteria that hitch a ride on pollutants may make the problem worse.

A post-mortem study of the hearts of 21 young people in Mexico City has found that the heart begins to show the adverse effects of air pollution at a young age and that tiny bits of inactivated bacteria that hitch a ride on pollutants may make the problem worse.

The study is part of a growing body of research showing that air pollution can damage the heart and lead to increased risk of heart disease and heart attacks. But this study contrasted two different areas of the same city, showing that different types of pollutants can produce different effects.

Rodolfo Villarreal, Juan Palacios, Keith Parker and Lilian Calderon carried out the study, “Gene inflammatory expression profiling in right versus left ventricles in young urbanites: What is the long-term impact of myocardial inflammation in the setting of air pollution?” They will present their findings in a poster session on Wednesday, April 28 at the Experimental Biology 2010 conference to take place April 24-28 in Anaheim, Calif. The researchers are from the University of Montana (Palacios, Parker, Calderon), the Instituto Nacional de Pediatria in Mexico City (Calderon) and the Big Sky High School in Missoula, Montana (Villarreal). The American Society for Investigative Pathology is sponsoring the poster presentation.

The researchers examined the hearts of 21 young adults, average age 18, who had lived in Mexico City before dying in accidents. Mexico City has some of the worst air pollution in North America and has high concentrations of microscopic pollutants, known as particle pollution, or particulate matter. Particulate matter that is less than 2.5 micrometers wide – the kind of particle pollutants that are found in smoke and haze – are more likely to gain entrance to the body than larger particles, which can be filtered out in the nose. Once inside, the particles can travel to various parts of the body, including to the heart, where they can cause damage or disease.

Endotoxins are bits of dead bacteria that can gain entrance to the body by attaching to particulate matter. The bacteria are from a variety of sources, including feces and soil. The bacterial bits that hitchhike on particulate matter are remnants of the bacterial cell wall and are composed of lipopolysaccharides.

The body reacts to the particulate matter and endotoxins by mounting an inflammatory response, which is the body’s attempt to remove foreign invaders. Because the pollution is chronic, this can lead to chronic inflammation in the affected organs, such as the heart.

Air monitoring in metropolitan Mexico City has shown that pollution characteristics differ between north Mexico City and south Mexico City. Residents in the south side are exposed to higher levels of endotoxins than residents of north Mexico City. The research team’s previous research found that mice exposed to air from south Mexico City had higher levels of inflammation in the heart muscle than mice exposed to north Mexico City air. They hypothesized that the difference could be linked to the difference in endotoxin levels.

Does air pollution inflame the human heart?

The researchers wanted to see if the residents of north and south Mexico City were also affected differently, as the mice had been. They studied heart samples of young people who had died in accidents – six from south Mexico City and 15 from north Mexico City. Their average age at the time of death was 18 years, with most falling in the range of 13 to 23 years.
The study found that residents of both north and south Mexico City showed signs of inflammation in the heart. But residents in the south had a stronger inflammatory response, as shown by elevated levels of:
• IL-1β
• TNF-α
• CD14
IL-1β and TNF-α have been implicated in heart disease and sepsis and are believed to play a role in the death of heart muscle cells.

The study also found differences in how the left and right ventricles responded to the pollution for both groups. But south Mexico City residents had higher levels of TNF-α for both the right and left ventricles compared to northern subjects. In addition, IL-1β and CD14 targeted the right ventricle significantly more in the southern subjects.
The south residents also had significantly more IL-10 in both ventricles compared to the north residents. This makes sense, because the body uses IL-10 to slow down the inflammatory response once it has started and the inflammatory response was more intense in those from the south.

New understanding of air pollution and heart

The researchers concluded that:
• polluted air can create inflammation, even in the hearts of young individuals
• the right ventricle responds differently than the left
• endotoxins play a role in the inflammation
It is not clear why the right and left ventricles are affected differently, but it may be related to the difference between the ventricles. Cardiac chambers differ in their functions and consequently exhibit differences in their form. For example, the left ventricle, having to pump oxygenated blood to the body, has more tiny blood vessels, called capillaries. The right ventricle pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs and does not have to pump as vigorously in comparison to its counterpart. These differences might contribute to the sharp differences in inflammation between ventricles in these highly exposed people.
The researchers note that this inflammation to the heart does not appear to create any immediate harm.
“However, as people age, this chronic inflammation may become a factor in heart disease,” said Villarreal. “The bottom line is, the air we breathe affects our heart health. The more research is conducted in this field, the more it is becoming clear we need to address the issue of air quality and its intricate ties to our health.”

The American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) is a society of biomedical scientists who investigate mechanisms of disease. Investigative pathology is an integrative discipline that links the presentation of disease in the whole organism to its fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms. It uses a variety of structural, functional, and genetic techniques and ultimately applies research findings to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. ASIP advocates for the practice of investigative pathology and fosters the professional career development and education of its members.

Today, the American Lung Association released its annual report card regarding our nation’s air quality. The report examines two types of pollution — ozone and PM2.5. Not surprisingly, Utah fails again in terms of short-term spikes in particle pollution (PM2.5).

Check out KUER’s morning report on Utah’s failing grade and what it means for Utahns.

You can see Utah’s report card and/or review the entire report from the American Lung Association.

Utah Moms for Clean Air believes this is unacceptable. If one of our children came home with multiple F grades on their report card there would be consequences. We would be having a very serious conversation, we would identify the problem and we would make a proactive plan to deal with the situation immediately — not tomorrow, not next semester, but now. Business as usual would not continue.

So, why are our elected officials and government agencies not doing the same? And this is not the first year the American Lung Association has given Utah failing grades for its air quality. As Cheryl Heying, the director of Utah’s Department of Air Quality (DAQ) said on KUER radio this morning, Utah’s failing grades are no surprise to her. Now, imagine a parent attending a parent/teacher conference and that is their response to year after year of failing grades. Unacceptable. The failing grades are the responsibility of both the child and the parent, just as cleaning up Utah’s air pollution is the responsibility of the polluters and the agencies that oversee them.

On behalf of all of the children in Utah, Utah Moms for Clean Air calls upon our state leaders and agencies to convene a multi-stakeholder summit to deal with Utah’s failing grades. Additionally, we call on DAQ to create a moratorium on any new permits for polluting until Utah is complying with the Federal Standards for Air Quality. To do anything less, is frankly irresponsible.

I was hoping the wind would give our valley a nice scrubbing, but alas that is not to be….instead, the wind is whipping-up the dust and other fine particles and our air quality has quickly deteriorated. The Utah Department of Air Quality (or lack thereof) shows the PM2.5 in the Salt Lake Area as nearly 100!!! My advice to all of you who like the breathe, close your windows and hunker down inside for the evening – and hopefully tomorrow, we will get some cleansing rain with this wind.

THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF SALT LAKE is pleased to announce a major public forum at 10:00 Saturday morning, May 1, at the Girl Scouts of Utah building, 445 E. 4500 South, to get answers to the CRUCIAL QUESTION:

“Are We Smothering Utah’s Future”?

The Wasatch Front has dangerous levels of air pollution; we know it, the EPA knows it too!

The health of our children, grandchildren, and ourselves is deteriorating because of the dirty air.

Water is being polluted as well as air–many industries are being affected.

State government does little to help, so we are losing new jobs and federal “stimulus dollars.”

By raising public awareness of what’s wrong and how to fix it, we can make a difference.

Featuring:
Dr. Brian Moench (of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, UPHE)
Tim Wagner (of Resource Media)
Cherise Udell (of Moms for Clean Air)

Dr. Moench summarizes his dynamic power-point talk this way: “Right now along the Wasatch Front, plans are being drawn up for more freeways, thousands more cars, hundreds of thousands new homes, more industry and a virtually limitless influx of people; all without any plan for the air pollution consequences. Without drastic policy changes, our air pollution will become intolerable. Our children and grandchildren won’t be healthy enough to live here, nor will they want to.”

Join us May 1st at the Girl Scout Headquarters, 445 East 4500 South, (parking behind) for beverages & treats, and for answers to your questions: “HOW BAD IS IT?” AND “WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?”

A massive plume of ash — released by a volcano with a tongue-twister of a name — is causing havoc across Europe. Pollen counts are hovering at record levels in the United States. Parts of the Himalayas are bathed in soot levels comparable to those found over major cities. Details about all of those events — and much more — are available from the Smog Blog, a website that monitors air pollution much like meteorologists track the daily weather.

The blog, managed by faculty and graduate students from the University of Maryland – Baltimore County (UMBC) and NASA, began as a casual suggestion from a student four years ago. Today, it is a web traffic magnet, racking up 20 million hits in four years and serving readers ranging from weather forecasters to asthmatics to amateur astronomers.

Reprinted from Red Orbit

Scorecard.org is an extraordinary resource for discerning exactly what is in our air when it starts to smell like gunpowder and taste like metal. Enter in your zip code and then with a simple click on drop-down menus you can find out who are the top polluters, who releases the most cancer-causing pollutants and where is the air pollution the worst in your state. You can also compare communities and search by specific companies, such as Kennecott and Holly Refinery, and find out exactly what they are pumping into our air (trust me, it isn’t pretty).

Utah’s Top 5 Polluters

1. Kennecott Utah Copper Mine Concentrators and Power Plant
2. Kennecott Utah Copper Smelter and Refinery
3. Bd Medical Systems
4. Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company
5. Chevron Refinery

Associated Press
April 14th, 2010

A public interest law firm is moving closer to filing a lawsuit over clean air violations in Maricopa County.

The Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest served notice on the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality that the state is in violation of “an emission standard or limitation” under the federal Clean Air Act.

The center’s letter says that by repealing the funding of the Local Transit Assistance Fund, the state has violated the Arizona state implementation plans for carbon monoxide, ozone and particulates.

The center threatens to file suit in federal court unless the funding is restored.

The ADEQ has not yet responded to the Center’s letter.

**Utah’s Department of Environmental Quality could be slapped with similar litigation if our State continues to be in violation of the Clean Air Act’s emission standards.**