Air pollution raises risk of heart disease in women
（The Guardian Feb 1,2007）
Women who live in areas of high air pollution, exposed to invisible particles from traffic fumes, coal-fired power stations and wood fires, are at increased risk of heart disease and death, according to a study.
The study shows that a woman’s risk of dying from cardiovascular disease is linked to where she lives and that the damage is greater than anyone had suspected. Scientists immediately called for greater curbs on air pollution.
“Our findings show that both what city a woman lived in and where she lived in that city affected her exposure level and her disease risk,” said Kristin Miller, one of the authors of the paper.
The researchers used information from more than 65,000 participants aged 50 to 79, living in 36 cities across the United States, in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study.
None of the women had heart disease at the beginning of the study, but nine years on 1,816 of them had suffered a heart attack or stroke. The researchers linked this information with data on air quality around each woman’s home. They not only found a link but discovered that “the magnitude of health effects may be larger than previously recognised”.
“The soot particles, which are typically created by fossil-fuel combustion in vehicles and power plants, can contain a mix of chemicals,” said professor Joel Kaufman, who led the study. “The tiny particles—and the pollutant gases that travel along with them—cause harmful effects once they are breathed in.”
The average particulate levels in the study for the 36 cities ranged from about four to almost 20 micrograms per cubic metre of air. Each 10 microgram rise carried a 76% increase in the chances of dying from any cardiovascular cause.
The researchers call for more attention to reducing air pollution. “These results suggest that efforts to limit long-term exposure to fine particulate pollution are warranted,” the authors write.
Women are not the same as men when it comes to heart disease, a commentary in the journal by two Harvard experts, Douglas Dockery and Peter Stone, points out. Their coronary arteries are smaller and the Euro Heart Survey found that women with confirmed coronary disease were twice as likely to die or suffer a heart attack as men.
The findings of the women’s study, they write, “strongly support the recommendation for tighter standards for long-term fine particulate air pollution”. They suggest that with more work it may be possible to identify which people are at greatest risk and focus any interventions, such as advice, drugs, diet and exercise, on them.
“This adds to the mounting evidence that air pollution should be taken seriously as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease,” said Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director. The foundation was funding research into ways of minimising harm. “In the meantime, when localised air pollution is particularly high, people with chronic lung disease or coronary heart disease should avoid staying outside for long periods,” he said.
考研词汇
invisible
adj.看不见的, 无形的
cardiovascular
adj.心脏血管的
information
n.①通知，报告；②情报，信息
［真题例句］Where to turn for expert information (②) and how to determine which expert advice to accept are questions facing many people today.［1995年阅读3］
［例句精译］ 去哪儿寻找专家信息，如何确定接受哪条专家建议成了当今许多人面临的问题。
combustion
n.燃烧
commentary
n.注释, 解说词
recommendation
n.推荐, 介绍(信), 劝告, 建议
chronic
adj.慢性的, 延续很长的
来源：《2011考研英语历年真题来源报刊阅读100篇》
