Study Links Particulate Emissions to Blood Clots
As if melting polar icecaps and species extinctions weren't enough, a new study warns that tailpipe emissions threaten our legs, too.
The study, published Tuesday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, says that even modest rises in particulate air pollution (think burning fossil fuels, especially diesel) increase the risk of developing blood clots in leg veins.
The researchers found that just a 10-micrometer-per-cubic-meter increase in particulates -- about the difference between Pittsburgh air and cleaner Anchorage air -- can raise the risk by 70 percent.
Scientists have long advised against exercising on smoggy days, and this study doesn't change that advice...
Americans check air quality on a county-by-county basis via the Environmental Protection Agency's AirCompare website.
Scott Doggett, Contributor
This raises what I think is an important question that I don't see addressed much -- just how bad/clean is the air in L.A. these days? I remember in the 60s an 70s you could see the thick layer just sitting over downtown or the Valleys. What is the situation vis-a-vis particulates and "smog alerts" when kids' PE was curtailed? Where do LA, the San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Valley fall with respect to Pittsburgh and Anchorage as referenced in the story? I'd be curious.
I love percentages, they can make montains out of mole hills.
if your odds of getting a blood clot before was 1 in a million, its now 1.7 in a million.
a whopping 70% increase,
Howdy Alany99,
The air quality in Los Angeles is the most unhealthy in the United States. But it is much better than it was when Detective Friday was cruising the streets of Los Angeles in the popular sixties TV series Dragnet. And that's remarkable, considering how much more people and motor vehicles there are in L.A. County and the region as a whole.
I'd encourage you to visit this government website, which will give you an almost year-by-year history of air quality in the state: http://www.arb.ca.gov/html/brochure/history.htm Now, I know you only expressed interest in the L.A. County, but this link is important to understanding how things have changed in our lifetimes.
If you go to http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/national/14air.html?_r=1&oref=slogin, you'll find a New York Times article published a few years back that paints a rather accurate painting of L.A. County air these days. Here's a taste of the article: "By virtually all measures, the region, the bowl-shaped home to 17 million air-breathing humans, remains the nation's capital of bad air."
Now for something completely scary: http://www.californialung.org/spotlight/cleanair03_research.html
What you have here is a link to the American Lung Assn of California site, or more specifically, to a page on that site that links to a small bunch of studies with titles such as "Long-Term Exposure to Particulate Pollution Linked to Lung Cancer."
And about that question you asked, Where do L.A. et al fall with respect to Pittsburgh and Anchorage, with Pittsburgh being on the bad end of a scale and Anchorage on the good? We (yes, I live in L.A.) don't fall within that range. Our air quality is worse than Pittsburgh's. We're off the chart, so to speak.
Bestest,
Got Zip