Hearts Skipping Beats?

City air pollution is generally caused by emissions from vehicles and/or industrial processes. It's been established, there are more hospital admissions in the UK, on days when air quality is especially poor. These admissions are often linked to heart conditions including atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, premature beats and supraventricular tachycardia. A Fudon University of Shanghai study looked at circa 200,000 Chinese hospital admissions, after acute exposure to high air pollution (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/01/air-pollution-spikes-linked-to-irregular-heartbeats-study-finds). The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that acute exposure to air pollution, raised the risk of heart arrhythmias (irregular beats), heart disease and sudden death. The effects of this exposure to air pollution were evident for up to 24 hours. Fine particulate air pollution was most strongly linked to irregular heartbeats. Compounds, such as nitrous dioxide, also had influences on heart function. It's uncertain how air pollution acts on the heart but it may alter the activity of the nerve nodes that control regular beats. There's clearly an urgent need to reduce city air pollution. It's a real challenge to human health.