Air Pollution Triggers More Heart Attacks Than Cocaine
Categories: Flotsam
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The study, conducted by Tim Nawrot of Hasselt University in Belgium and published in the journal The Lancet, set out to find the major culprits of heart attacks on a population-wide level.
The study found that culprits like exposure to traffic, physical exertion, alcohol, coffee, and air pollution caused the most heart attacks. Things like anger, sex, cocaine use, smoking marijuana, and respiratory infections were responsible for fewer attacks.
Remember, though, that many more people are exposed to things like traffic and air pollution than cocaine. On a personal level, you have a bigger risk of getting a heart attack due to drug abuse than say, sitting in traffic on a smog-filled highway. Though, more people end up being exposed to pollution than cocaine.
The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution leads to about 2 million deaths worldwide each year.
While almost all politicians seem to step in line with the war on drugs, it makes you wonder why fewer can agree on ways to limit factors that cause air pollution, considering it's a greater threat to the health of far more citizen.
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