Air Pollution Linked to Heart Disease; The Number One Killer of Canadian and American Women

I, like thousands other women watched Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette perform last night with tears in my eyes. This young Olympian, on the brink of the most exciting week of her life, lost her mother to a massive heart attack on Sunday morning. Therese Rochette was only 55 years old – tragic and all too common in North America.

Mistakenly thought of as a male health issue, heart disease is actually the number one killer of women over the age of 55 in both Canada and the United States. In fact, almost twice as many women die from heart related aliments than from all forms of cancer.

Researchers are beginning to see that this staggering health problem stems not only from lifestyle issues, but environmental factors as well. Only last week researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California , announced that their studies show that exposure to air pollution accelerates the thickening of artery walls that leads to heart disease. The problem was especially serious for those who lived next to a heavy pollution source which caused the thickening to progress twice as fast as for those who lived farther away.

Chemical exposure may also play a role in heart disease. In January, researchers reported that elevated exposure to bisphenol A seemed associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease. It’s the second time researchers have made a connection between the controversial plastic compound and heart problems.

While these environmental factors definitely warrant more study, there are also numerous established risk factors that women can also address:


Tobacco Smoke:
While it’s no surprise that smokers have a higher risk of having a heart attack, many women don’t realize that regular exposure to second-hand smoke also puts them at greater risk.

Inactivity:
Physically inactive women double their risk of developing heart problems. As little as 30-minutes of exercise four times a week could lower the risk.

High Blood Pressure:
Also called hypertension, this condition forces the heart muscle to work harder and causes damage to blood vessels, making them more likely to clog.

Body Weight:
Weight has a direct effect on a woman’s risk of developing heart disease. Experts say that even losing a small amount of weight can make a difference.

Beijing Air Quality: What Was All the Fuss About?

When the 2008 Summer Olympics were set to open, air quality was all the buzz. Pictures of a hazy, smoggy Beijing were plastered across TV screens, the Internet, and newspapers across the globe. The first few sporting events, we all waited with bated breath to see if our athletes would collapse due to the inferior air quality. Now, with the Games coming to a close, athletes continue to break Olympic and world records with relative ease, and we wonder, what was all the air quality fuss really about?

But hold on, now. Let’s have a look at just some of the emittion-cutting measures that Beijing has taken to improve its air quality. Polluting industries have been closed, cleaner production methods initiated, half of Beijing’s 3.3 million cars removed, public transportation infrastructures built, man-made forests grown, battery-powered cars driven, solar panels installed, and among other environmentally-friendly measures, reports indicate a whopping $17 billion has been invested in cleaning up Beijing’s air.

Is all this work just for show? Perhaps. But one thing’s for sure, we’ve learned something important from the efforts made in Beijing: measures to improve air quality work!

In fact, the air quality in Beijing so far this month has been the best for any summer period over the last 10 years.

Who knows if Beijing will keep up its pledge to improve air quality once the international eye is no longer watching, but really, who are we to say? They’ve researched, indeed initiated, what we here in Canada and the United States are only still talking about.

We’ve had our chance to shake our finger at China, tssk-ing in all our glory, but I think as the Games come to a close, we should open up our own air quality discussion.

As a country, what measures are we going to take to improve our own air quality? As a government, what restrictions are we going to impose on our citizens and corporations?

As citizens, what steps can we take to protect ourselves, our families, until we stop tssk-ing, and start tasking?