Tiny Fuel Particles Cause Heart Attacks, Group Says

Tiny air-born particles released by burning fossil fuels are reducing the average human life span across Europe and North America by eight months, a leading research body said on Monday.

Studies showed that the particles are a major cause of heart attacks, one of the world’s biggest killers, a scientist from an Austrian-based research body told a U.N. news conference. “We always knew that they had an effect on the respiratory system, but now we know that they spark cardiovascular disease by inflaming the heart membranes,” said Markus Amann of IAASA, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Power stations, road traffic, steel and cement plants and even wood-burning in country areas contribute to the build-up of the particles, he added. Amann was speaking in advance of a conference in Geneva of the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), which is expected to set up an expert team to look at the problem. The conference also marks the 25th anniversary of a pact on reducing cross-border air pollution, which has helped remove relatively heavy pollutants like sulfur from the atmosphere. The fossil fuel particles that cause heart attacks, however, are light and can travel some 1,200 to 1,900 miles on air currents. Amann’s institute is working with the ECE and the World Health Organization (WHO) to analyze the results of studies across North America, Europe and former Soviet Central Asia on the effects of the particles. “It is a continental problem on a global scale,” said Amann, “and it can only be tackled through international cooperation.” (Source: Reuters Health: November 2004.)