Almost every major city, on every continent, has studies showing increases in cardiovascular mortality and morbidity due to air pollution. I have seen studies on the impact of air pollution on virtually every organ in the human body. The first section of the blog post will focus on air pollutions impact on the cardiovascular system. Pollution in small and large doses can impact human health in very negative ways.

Plain dirt and dust also impacts the cardiovascular. Every major city near a desert has increase hospital visits during dust storms. Having personally lived on the east and west side of the Saharan desert, I learned first had the impact of wind driven dust. Dirt also carries diseases like valley fever, staph and meningitis. We have a series of studies highlighting the threat of dust on the cardiovascular system.

https://bioone.org/journals/environmental-health-insights/volume-15/issue-1/11786302211018390/Global-Health-Impacts-of-Dust-Storms-A-Systematic-Review/10.1177/11786302211018390.full

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.114.000921

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349702126_Impact_of_Desert_Dust_Events_on_the_Cardiovascular_Disease_A_Systematic_Review_and_Meta-Analysis

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/9/2/376/htm

https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/38/43/3202/4096402

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00484-021-02132-x

https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/sand-and-dust-storm-hits-europe

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2020GH000260

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/11/1413/htm

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022004172

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8998096/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3407226/

https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA693493955&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=2052336X&p=HRCA&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E97c7f6f3

Wildfires are another significant source of seasonal air pollution. Wildfire smoke is a mix of gases and fine particles from burning trees, plants, buildings, and other materials in the path of the fire. Wildfire smoke is complex both physically and chemically, and its composition is determined by fuel type and combustion conditions. Wildfire smoke generally consists of coarse and fine PM, VOCs (e.g., aldehydes, n-alkanes), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), gases (e.g., CO, SO₂, NO, NO₂), and metals. Wildfire smoke can make anyone sick, but people with asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), or heart disease, as well as children, pregnant women and fire fighters are especially at risk.

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.058058

https://particleandfibretoxicology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12989-020-00394-8

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6015400/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9166629/

https://www.bumc.bu.edu/cardiovascular-medicine/files/2022/11/Hadley1.1-002.pdf