Study: Diesel exhaust may harm runners’ hearts
“Patients exercising in a polluted area might be putting their heart under additional strain,” says Dr. Nicholas Mills of the University of Edinburgh.
His Scottish research team found that during exercise, heart patients who inhaled as much diesel exhaust as is typically found in heavily trafficked cities increased the stress on their hearts by threefold, compared with control patients who exercised in cleaner air.
“We also found that even six hours after the one-hour exposure to air pollution, there are still adverse effects on the way blood vessels respond,” Mills said.
But that shouldn’t stop city dwellers from heading out the door for a run, says Dr. Murray Mittleman of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
“If your only choice is exercising in a setting that is not perfectly protected from air quality, then you will probably get more benefit from exercise than risk. On the other hand, if you have a choice, it’s probably better to exercise away from traffic when you can.”