{"id":2817,"date":"2018-09-27T05:26:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T04:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/on-world-heart-day-were-raising-awareness-of-the-link-between-cvd-and-air-pollution\/"},"modified":"2022-09-09T15:49:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T13:49:50","slug":"on-world-heart-day-were-raising-awareness-of-the-link-between-cvd-and-air-pollution","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/on-world-heart-day-were-raising-awareness-of-the-link-between-cvd-and-air-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"On World Heart Day, we’re raising awareness of the link between CVD and air pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"
This year, on 29 September (World Heart Day<\/a>), the World Heart Federation (WHF) is raising awareness of an increasingly important CVD risk factor: air pollution<\/a>. Nineteen percent<\/strong> of all CVD deaths (nearly one in five) are caused by outdoor and household air pollution1<\/sup>, the equivalent of more than 3 million deaths every year.<\/p>\n 7 million people die prematurely every year from air pollution: 1.4 million from stroke and over 2 million from heart disease2<\/sup><\/p>\n The latest scientific evidence by Nature<\/a>4 <\/sup>warns that exposure to nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter air pollution, originating from household wood, coal burning, industrial facilities, vehicle emissions and agricultural burning, is clearly linked to CVD mortality. In addition, exposure to these particles increases the risk of developing hypertension<\/a> and type 2 diabetes<\/a>, which are major risk factors for CVD<\/a>.<\/p>\n Poor air quality is also ranked as the 4th<\/sup> cause of Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) – one lost year of ‘healthy life’ – above tobacco, according to latest Global Burden of Disease study5<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Professor David Wood<\/strong>, WHF President, comments<\/strong>: \u201cReducing exposure to air pollution has become a crucial challenge that the world needs to face if we are to continue advancing in our goal to reduce the impact of noncommunicable diseases, especially cardiovascular disease – the world’s biggest killer. On World Heart Day, we are raising awareness of poor outdoor and household air quality as an increasingly important risk factor, and bringing together all those involved in cardiovascular health from every country in the world in the fight to reduce CVD.”<\/em><\/p>\n