Long-term air pollution has now been linked to an increased risk of arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, researchers report. Air pollution is a modifiable risk factor for heart disease, but evidence linking it with arrhythmias has been inconsistent to date. To determine whether there is a link, Chinese researchers evaluated the association between hourly exposure to air pollution and sudden onset of arrhythmia symptoms using data from 2025 hospitals in 322 Chinese cities.
Air pollution in China is well above the World Health Organization’s guidelines for air quality, and the researchers conducted their analysis using air pollutant concentrations from monitoring stations closest to the reporting hospitals.
“We found that acute exposure to ambient air pollution was associated with an increased risk of symptomatic arrhythmias,” said Dr Renjie Chen, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Symptoms occurred during the first several hours after exposure and may persist for up to 24 hours.
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In a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), Chen said, “The risk-response relationships between the six pollutants and the 4 subtypes of arrhythmias were approximately linear without clear thresholds of concentrations.”
The common arrhythmia conditions atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter, which can progress to more serious heart disease, affect an estimated 59.7 million people globally.
The study included 190,115 patients with acute onset of symptomatic arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, premature beats (originated in either the atria or ventricles of the heart), and supra-ventricular tachycardia.
“Although the precise mechanisms are not yet fully understood, the association between air pollution and rapid onset of arrhythmias is biologically plausible,” the authors wrote.
Some evidence has indicated that air pollution alters cardiac electrophysiological activities by inducing oxidative stress and systemic inflammation, affecting multiple membrane channels, as well as autonomic nerve function.