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EVEN low levels of air pollution could damage health, according to a new study.
People living close to busy roads have been found with heart changes such as the enlarged ventricles seen in the early stages of heart failure.
Data from about 4,000 people shows even those exposed to air pollution levels comfortably within UK guidelines exhibited these heart changes, according to the findings published in the journal Circulation.
Most participants in the study, carried out by scientists at Queen Mary University of London and Oxford University, lived outside big cities. Further studies in large cities will now be carried out.
Dr Nay Aung of Queen Mary University said the study was “observational” and “has not yet shown a causal link,” but it confirmed that low levels of air pollution significantly changed the heart structure.
Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the study, said people cannot be expected to move home to avoid pollution, so the government and public bodies “must act right now to make all areas safe.”
