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Blacks Are More Exposed to Air Pollution That Can Trigger Heart Attacks Because...

Black exposed more to pollution

Researchers have recently connected the dots on two lethal factors that can have a deadly effect on African Americans and other minorities. The two factors include increased heart attack risk among African Americans, and air pollution.

Heart attack risk and air pollution

African Americans are already at increased risk for heart attacks, strokes and heart disease. But recent research has also shown that African Americans and low-income Americans are exposed to 38 percent greater air pollution, and air pollution can trigger heart attacks. So, this presents a double whammy for African Americans in particular.

What the research shows

The research was done by the University of Minnesota. The results showed that race played an important factor in what quality of air people breathe every day. More Africans Americans and low-income minorities live closer to urban communities where the air is filled with harmful nitrogen dioxide coming from power plants and exhaust fumes from vehicles. In fact, the air they breathe was found to be 38 percent more harmful than the air generally breathed by whites.

Why Blacks are exposed more

According to the researchers, less education and lower incomes among African Americans often place them in inner city environments where they are closer to toxic air. They even estimate that as many as 7,000 deaths could be prevented among minorities if they were not exposed to the level of air pollution that they now experience.

One co-author of the study stated that they found the results "shocking".


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