A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology has found some association between long term (20 year) exposure to air-borne particulates and sub-clinical atherosclerosis (the formation of fatty deposits in artery walls).

The research, which was conducted on more than 6,800 men and women aged 44-84 years who were free of clinical cardiovascular disease, looked at the association between exposure to airborne particulate matter over 20 years and three measures of subclinical atherosclerosis. One measure – the thickness of the carotid artery walls – was increased for those people with greater long term particulate exposure. Results for other measures were inconsistent.

Particulates are microscopic particles (e.g. dust, bacteria, mould spores, pollen, plastics, smoke, pesticides and metal fragments) that are carried in the air. While some are naturally occurring, others are found in motor vehicle exhaust or may be produced by industry or the burning of wood and coal. While they may be associated with numerous adverse health effects, the authors of this study cite works which associated particulate matter exposure with the incidence of clinical cardiovascular disease.

To reduce your exposure to particulate matter, minimise particulates in your indoor environments, where you probably spend up to 90% of your time. Some measures which may help include : not smoking; not burning solid fuels such as wood, briquettes; minimising dust; not spraying aerosols or using chemicals; minimising the entry into the building of air polluted with automobile exhaust. This may mean not opening windows and doors during peak traffic times and not attaching a garage to the house. If there is already a garage attached to the house, ensure that the garage door is open when a car motor is running and never allow a car to idle in the garage. Also ensure that the door between the garage and the home has tight seals is kept closed.

References

Roux, A., Auchincloss, A., Franklin, T., Raghunathan, T., Barr, R., Kaufman, J., Astor, B. and Keeler, J.  2008  Long term exposure to ambient particulate matter and prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis in the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis  American Journal of Epidemiology 167(6):667-675.  Online, available at : http://aje.oxfordjournals.org  (Viewed on 24.3.08)