Pollution linked to heart attacks

For individuals, cocaine is a huge factor for heart attacks – raising the risk 23 times.

But as far more people are exposed to traffic fumes and factory emissions than cocaine, air quality is a greater threat to everyone.

Scientists looked at “final straw” risk factors for triggering heart attacks, rather than underlying causes of heart disease. Led by Dr Tim Nawrot, from Hasselt University in Belgium, they analysed 36 studies to calculate “population-attributable fractions” (PAFs), giving the proportion of heart attacks caused by different triggers.

The highest PAF of 7.4 per cent was attributed to traffic exposure, followed by physical exertion (6.2 per cent), alcohol and coffee (5 per cent), and high levels of small air pollutant particles.

Writing in The Lancet online, the scientists said that of the triggers they studied, cocaine was the most likely trigger, but traffic has the greatest effect as more people are exposed.