Cleaner Air Means Healthier Hearts
By EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy
February is Healthy Heart Month. There’s no better time than now to learn how to protect your heart.
Air pollution can affect heart health, and even trigger heart attacks and strokes. That’s important information for the one in three Americans who have heart disease, and for the people who love them.
And it’s why EPA is working with other government agencies, and with private and nonprofit health organizations, on the Million Hearts® national initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. This month, and every month, we want to make sure people understand how heart disease is linked to air pollution – and what people can do to protect themselves.
Scientific studies, including research by EPA scientists, shows that there’s not just an association between air pollution and heart disease, but that this association can have life-threatening consequences.
In a recent study in Environmental Research, EPA scientists looked at data from NASA satellites and EPA ground-based air monitors, and confirmed that heart disease and heart attacks are more likely for individuals who live in places with higher air pollution. The study found that exposure to even small additional amounts of fine particle pollution averaged over a year could increase a person’s odds of a heart attack by up to 14 percent.
So, what can you do to help keep your heart healthy?
- You can start by making sure to eat nutritious meals and exercise (just make sure to check with your health care provider first).
- Check the Air Quality Index every day to learn about your local air quality and how can reduce your exposure to air pollution.
- And we can all do our part to make choices that are better for the environment and our health – like taking public transit more often and driving cleaner vehicles.
This February, and every month, remember that cleaner air means healthier hearts.
Melissa
Feb 22, 2016 @ 14:03:24
Very interesting research! Checking the air quality index daily is a nice idea, but most of us are not going to add this in to our daily routines. What if an air quality index was integrated into weather.com or weather.gov so that when we checked the weather in the morning, we also got an idea of the air quality index? Is that something the EPA could contact weather.com about? Or it could come up on Apple’s daily notification bar – people would become much more aware of air quality if they did actually look at it every day.
Mandy
Feb 24, 2016 @ 04:02:05
Hello Gina ,
I benifited a lot from the above aritcle. But I am still confused about “Driving cleaner vehicles” from this sentence” we can all do our part to make choices that are better for the environment and our health – like taking public transit more often and driving cleaner vehicles.Does it mean to make the air inside the vehicles cleaner? If that so, it is easy to do that.
Regards
Mandy
Mandy
Feb 24, 2016 @ 04:26:06
Hello,
I benifit a lot from your above article. Thanks. But I am sitll confused about ” Driving Cleaner vehicles” from the above. Does it mean to make the air inside the vehicles cleaner? If that so, it is very easy to do that.
Regards
Mandy
freedrugcoupon
Feb 26, 2016 @ 10:11:17
yes it is nice post.
James Fedraic
Feb 27, 2016 @ 13:11:19
Thanks for your nice tips.But Can I get Some tips about how to I quite Smoking.
پارتیشن
Feb 27, 2016 @ 16:00:24
Your article is very good
Chris M Salberg
Feb 27, 2016 @ 20:48:40
Nice someone is at least trying.
Mahdia//Shantirdak
Mar 01, 2016 @ 01:21:17
Hello Gina,
Your post is really nice.It is very helpful.I tried it and it is proved very helpful for me.Thanks for sharing such a nice post.
Irvin B Shannon
Mar 02, 2016 @ 05:10:11
The Harmonious Volunteer Center is taking a Grassroots Initiative to help improve air quality by the diversion of Shoe and Footwear Materials. The HVC Shoe Drive Campaign is programmed to have a monthly impact of 6 tons per month Statewide in Pennsylvania and will be expanding to other states in the United States.
Todd L., LCSW
Mar 04, 2016 @ 16:29:31
Great article…thanks for the post!
FC
Mar 05, 2016 @ 14:15:38
Wouldn’t we all have healthier hearts if the EPA would quit turning off radiation monitors all over the USA?
How can American’s take protective actions if they cannot see when they are being bathed in fallout?
FC
Mar 05, 2016 @ 14:18:24
American’s would have better heart health if the EPA would stop turning off all the radiation monitors everywhere.
How can people protect themselves from being bathed in fallout when EPA turns off the state-of-the-art monitors?
Rex
Mar 05, 2016 @ 19:06:15
Hi Gina, if you are truly concerned about air pollution why don’t you release the radiation readings from radnet the days after the Fukushima meltdown? Very convenient that radnet just so happened to fail the day after. What will history say when its found you took part in covering this up?
Brisbane Lawyers
Mar 07, 2016 @ 14:30:34
Environment is everything. If we want to save the world we have to save the environment. We all should have the enough knowledge about environment law and always try to obey it.
Hillary
Mar 08, 2016 @ 16:41:23
Many factors are involved in keeping a healthy heart. I agree that the environment and eating healthy are intertwined. Good article, very informative.
Pawan
Mar 10, 2016 @ 02:12:25
There are so many different factors to keep heart healthy… and clean air is just one of them
Pankaj Verma
Mar 15, 2016 @ 05:33:53
Clean air is Just one of them, but perhaps most important one !
Aaron Lee
Mar 10, 2016 @ 12:19:19
I’ve recently found an intriguing interest in how pollution is effecting our health. There are parts of the world where you cannot step outside and breath fresh air. I work out 2-3 times a week and have changed my eating habits. We must save our environment!
raphael
Mar 11, 2016 @ 08:09:55
Really i agreed your article. This was so nice and when we want to live a healthy life we need a good environment. Thank you for posting and please keep update like this
Agen Judi Online Terpercaya
Mar 11, 2016 @ 11:52:09
Thanks for sharing .it very useful information for blog commenting lists.
Paul Phillips
Mar 12, 2016 @ 01:06:58
Great information in the post. People should also understand that indoor carpet acts as a filter for pollutants and if you don’t get it cleaned regularly it can have adverse affects on ones health. Thanks for the great info!
Pankaj Verma
Mar 15, 2016 @ 05:32:02
Very Informative and Interesting articles. A clean and environment is as important as Life. You cannot take anything for granted !
Tobias
Mar 18, 2016 @ 13:07:32
Thank you. I never knew there was a central, easily accessible air quality index.
Ali Sufyan
Mar 29, 2016 @ 15:45:17
you have a great mind in research. it was really an interesting information.
simrangoyal
Nov 09, 2016 @ 01:23:46
“health is a wealth” Good Blog thanks For Sharing!!!