Air pollution now truly heart-breaking
Most city-dwellers know the signs of a bad air day - the scenic yellow haze on the horizon, the familiar metallic taste in your mouth, the shooting pain in your chest and numbness down the left arm... That's right, smog isn't just knocking birds out of the sky and turning your shirts grey, it may also be setting you up for a heart attack.
A report on Canadian public health attributes some 6000 deaths every year to short-term exposure to excessive air pollution, with about 70% of those deaths coming from cardiovascular "events' such as heart attack or stroke. It's estimated that even a single day increase from low to high levels of pollution can increase the liklihood of a heart attack by 69%.
Perhaps even more alarmingly, Robert Brook, a doctor and pollution expert at the press conference where the report was presented, says there's growing evidence that long-term exposure to smog can harm the hearts of healthy young people.
What do the experts recommend to keep yourself and your loved ones out of the Coronary Ward? Stay inside and inactive when the air is bad. "Kids, it's a beautiful summer day today - I don't want to see you outside playing!" How times have changed.














