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Study links particulates, heart damage
For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that particulate matter at concentrations found in polluted urban areas can cause heart damage in rats without significant lung injury. The researchers--who are from EPA, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and Harvard University--say the heart damage finding is significant. Particulate-matter air pollution, they explain, "has been consistently linked to poor cardiac health and increased cardiac-related deaths" in humans but was not previously linked to heart damage in laboratory rats. They suggest that zinc, the predominant bioavailable metal in the particulate matter used in the study, may play a role in heart muscle damage. The study involved particulates derived from oil combustion, which are similar in metal composition to emissions from many sources of urban pollution. The report was published in Toxicological Sciences [71, 237 (2003)].
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