According to German researchers living near a busy highway may be bad for your heart as it raises the risk of hardening of the arteries.
The researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen say that long-term exposure to air pollution from a nearby freeway or busy road can raise the risk of hardening of the arteries, which in turn can lead to heart disease and stroke.
Dr. Barbara Hoffmann, the lead author, says the study is the first to actually show a relationship between long-term traffic exposure and coronary atherosclerosis.
Dr. Hoffmann says that living close to busy traffic which is a major source of urban air pollution, is linked to atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply the heart.
For the study the researchers examined 4,494 adults, aged 45 to 74, in three large cities in the industrialized Ruhr area of Germany as part of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study.
The participants home address was used to estimate each person's exposure to urban air pollution and they were also interviewed about other risk factors such as diabetes and smoking.
The study group also underwent extensive clinical examinations, and had their coronary artery calcification (CAC) measured by electron-beam computed tomography (EBCT).
Other studies have also linked elevated levels of air pollution to an increased risk of heart problems, but this is the first to demonstrate that living near high traffic is associated with coronary atherosclerosis.