Effects of Air Pollution on the Risk of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Charleroi, Belgium

Major pollutants in the atmosphere are fine particles, CO₂, hydrocarbons, NO_x, CO and SO₂. The atmospheric pollution would increase morbidity and mortality rates for various respiratory illnesses in urban areas, and could also be an explanatory factor of higher rates of myocardial infarction in Charleroi compared with the other Belgian cities. And analysis of the relation between atmospheric pollutants and health problems is complex both as regards methodological approaches and the difficulties in approaching data often collected with very different purposes.

In this study, the authors investigated the health effects of acute exposure to air pollution on cardiovascular morbidity/mortality in Charleroi. The study was based on comparing hospital data taken from the registry of ischaemic cardiopathies in Charleroi (1999 to 2008) to data on the air quality in this region. To measure the association between atmospheric pollution and the number of cases of myocardial infarction, Poisson regression was carried out. The excess risk of myocardial infarction was analyzed according to the month of admission.

For men, a decrease in the attack rate of myocardial infarction was visible during the first three years of the study, later to remain stable. For women, attack rates were stable throughout the study. Most of the pollutants varied according to season. Except for ozone, concentrations were generally higher in winter. And there was an association between the concentrations of PM₁₀ and NO₂ and morbidity/mortality by acute myocardial infarction. The increased risk for an increase of 10 μg/m³ of pollutant was 1.8% for PM₁₀ and 4.0% for NO₂. Multivariate models must still be developed and applied to our data.

Finally, it’s recommended that it would be necessary in the future to analyze the effects of the weight of atmospheric pollution on the coronary pathology compared to the environmental specificities (social, economic, cultural and physical) of the population of this urban area.

Article by Yves Coppieters, et al, from Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.

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Image by awqeleann, from Flickr-cc.