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What are the dangers of breathing in polluted air?
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
It turns out that after just two hours of exposure to polluted air, blood vessels become less elastic, heart rate is disrupted, and blood composition changes toward inflammation. Moreover, such disruptions persist for the next 24 hours.
Air pollution is harmful, and statistics confirm this: people who have to breathe air filled with industrial and automobile exhausts get sick more often and more seriously, unlike residents of less busy areas. In order to confirm or refute this information, scientists from the National University of Athens conducted a corresponding experiment.
In laboratory conditions, they equipped a special room with the ability to control the composition of the air. Air containing diesel exhaust was pumped into the room - approximately in the same volume as in the central parts of large cities. According to the same statistics, the combustion products of "diesel" make up half of the total atmospheric pollution in urban conditions. Another room was filled with ordinary, unpolluted air. Forty healthy volunteers with no problems with the heart and blood vessels were selected for the experiment. People were divided into two groups: some of them were in a "gassed" room for two hours, and others - in a room with clean air. After 4 weeks, the experiment was repeated with the same people, but the first and second groups of volunteers were swapped.
The condition of the cardiovascular system of the participants was checked by several indicators at once. They measured the activity of protein C, which plays the role of an anticoagulant and reduces the risk of thrombus formation. They measured C-reactive protein, since it is one of the basic inflammatory markers. They determined the degree of expansion of blood vessels under the influence of increased blood flow, as well as vascular elasticity. As it was found, after two hours of staying in a polluted atmosphere, the indicators of the work of the heart and blood vessels did not change in the best way.
Those who inhaled polluted air had increased inflammation markers and fibrinogen activity, and the function of the anticoagulant protein was suppressed, meaning that the participants had an increased risk of thrombus formation. Heart rhythm disturbances were observed, and vascular walls lost elasticity, which generally worsened blood circulation. It is noteworthy that these adverse changes persisted for 24 hours, that is, even after the person went out into the fresh air. What can we say about people who live or work in the central parts of cities, where the air is polluted almost constantly.
Scientists have been talking about the connection between the composition of the atmosphere and the development of cardiovascular diseases for a long time. Now they have presented indisputable facts about the negative impact of ecology on human health.
More details about the material can be found on the website of the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology