Air pollution may up heart, lung disease risk

The study, published in the journal Environment International, found that exposure to pollutants such as ground-level ozone and nitrogen oxides, which are created from burning fossil fuels, led to increased ED visits.

While most past studies were conducted on a single-city level, this study looked at pollution across five cities -- Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and St Louis. The researchers analyzed the associations between cardiorespiratory ED visits and twelve major air pollutants to examine short-term changes in health as pollution varies on a daily basis.

This is also one of the first multi-city studies to look at multiple air pollutants, including gases and particles, and multiple causes of ED visits, such as asthma and stroke. It is a larger and more comprehensive study than previous work that has commonly looked at one pollutant and multiple health outcomes, or multiple pollutants and one health outcome.