February is American Heart Month—and one of the things that breaks our hearts is soot pollution.
Soot is the common name for a type of air pollution that consists of tiny particles or droplets in the air. It’s generated when fossil fuels are burned for energy (think smoky power plants and vehicle exhaust), as well as from other sources, like wildfires.
Both long-term and short-term exposure to soot is bad for our hearts. Breathing soot-polluted air increases our risk of a range of cardiovascular issues, including:
- Heart attacks
- Stroke
- Arrhythmias
- Coronary syndrome
- Premature death from cardiovascular events
Health impacts like these make cleaning up our air one of the best ways we can love our hard-working hearts.
And we need EPA to work hard to protect our hearts too: send EPA a Valentine’s Day message asking them to protect our hearts with the strongest possible standards for soot pollution.