The PM2.5 Risk: Even Greater Than We Thought

The more we find out about ultra-fine particles called PM2.5, the more dangerous to health they seem to be.  E&E News reports:

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study, published in tomorrow’s Archives of Internal Medicine, found a “strong association” between exposure to fine-particle pollution and strokes. The study was funded in part by U.S. EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. . . .

Researchers suggested there is a strong link between stroke risk and the fine particles, which are 2.5 millionths of a meter in diameter and are commonly referred to as PM2.5. Such particles can come from various sources, including power plants, auto exhaust and wood burning.

The study also found that the risk exists even at concentrations below the levels now allowed by federal standards, and that cutting PM2.5 pollution by 20 percent could have prevented 6,100 of 184,000 stroke hospitalizations in the Northeast in 2007. That’s a slot of strokes.