In the last couple of weeks, in my personal circles, I've been told of four Utahans who have suffered cardiac events in the past 6 weeks. These events either put them in the hospital or ended their lives.
The young brother of a good friend.
A man in my mom's neighborhood.
A ward member of a work colleague.
A fellow member in an environmental organization.
These events occurred during a time period when we have had heightened--even extreme--air pollution in the Salt Lake Valley.
The 2020 study and report commissioned by the Utah legislature known as the Utah Road Map to Clean Air links heart disease (among many other ailments) to the kind of pollution we've been experiencing (see screen shots below).
While I don't have any way of knowing whether these particular people's cardiac problems were caused by the recent air quality, exascerbated by it, or unrelated to it, the number of people in my acquaintance experiencing this stuff lately makes me wonder if health agencies have also seen an uptick in these kinds of problems.
The World Health Organization reports 4.2 million yearly deaths worldwide due to air pollution-caused stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and other respiratory diseases. This is way more than other causes that get more attention, like war and natural disasters. We're no exception to those deaths here.
The smoke we've had lately from fires is due, in large part, to a warming planet. Air quality affects our health and our families. Climate change too.
If you want to call your reps and tell them how it affects you, this website has an easy way to do it and even gives you tips on what to say:
https://www.call4climatenow.com/
Sources:
https://gardner.utah.edu/utahroadmap/
https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1
https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/3066/the-climate-connections-of-a-record-fire-year-in-the-us-west/
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