IntermtnMedCtr - Air pollution is a lung AND heart problem

Short Summary

Main recommendation: If you have an underlying heart condition or struggle with inversion-related poor air, reduce your exposure to polluted air, change home air filters, and cut car emissions where possible, such as by using an electric bike and combining errands into a single trip. Interventional cardiologist Dr. Brett Milstein argues that air pollution is a heart problem as well as a lung problem, based on his observation that heart attack cases rise on bad-air days.

Key Points

• Dr. Brett Milstein, an Intermountain Healthcare interventional cardiologist with 24 years of experience, says he previously did not link air pollution to heart failure until studies showed otherwise.
• He reports that on bad-air days in the valley, his heart attack patients rise from about one or two per day to two to five per day, which he describes as roughly double the risk.
• The video says fine particulate matter enters the bloodstream and can rupture existing plaque, triggering a clot that blocks blood flow to the heart.
• Air quality is currently in the orange, unhealthy-for-sensitive-groups range in Salt Lake County, due to an inversion; Dr. Milstein said he expects the inversion to last at least through the next day.
• The reporter notes that restrictions on outdoor activity are recommended once particulate matter goes above about 100; the reading mentioned was about 51.

Details Worth Noting

• Concrete instructions:
  • If you have an underlying heart condition or struggle with inversions, change your home air filters.
  • Use an electric bike instead of driving a car for short trips to reduce emissions, as Dr. Milstein does.
  • Trip-chain errands: combine multiple errands into one outing rather than making separate trips home between each one.
  • If you need to exercise outdoors, do it early in the morning before drivers hit the roads and emissions rise.
  • Above roughly 100 on the particulate matter count, restrict outdoor activity.
• Dr. Milstein lives in Bountiful on a hill above the inversion, which is why he rides an electric bike there.
• The reporter says she heard Brett and Allison discussing the particulate matter reading earlier that day.
• Dr. Milstein expected above-average heart attack calls the day after the report, because the inversion was forecast to persist.
• The sustainability fair mentioned in the segment showcased electric bikes and other ways to reduce emissions, though the video notes these changes cannot happen overnight.

Bottom Line

Poor air quality is a cardiac risk as well as a respiratory one, so people with heart conditions should take inversion alerts seriously and limit exposure where they can.