SALT LAKE CITY — With cooler weather moving into Utah, we’re moving into inversion season.
Between the inversion in the winter and wildfire smoke in the summer, Utahns face poor air quality nearly all year round.
A team of researchers at Intermountain Health released results Wednesday from a study they started in 1999 to see how these poor air quality periods impact our health.
They tracked more than 22,000 patients along the Wasatch front, comparing the patients’ hospital visits on days when the air quality was bad during the summer months of wildfire season, and during the winter months when there’s inversion.
Dr. Benjamin Horne said during the days of inversion pollution, the risk of someone being hospitalized for a heart attack increased by about 10%.
During wildfire smoke days, there wasn’t a rise in heart attacks, but the risk of hospitalization for chest pain went up 45%.
“The unstable chest pain that can even happen when you're sitting appears to bring people into the hospital quickly in the summer, but not as much in the winter,” said Dr. Horne.
When it comes to what these findings mean for our health, he says it’s all about awareness.
“I think people need to understand that the pollutants potentially pose a risk and so when there is an elevated, air quality index, to be judicious about the amount of time you spend outdoors.”
That means looking at air quality index, staying inside on those bad quality days, and checking in with your doctor and yourself about your risks for heart disease.
“If you're having symptoms, if you have chest pain when you exercise, you should get that checked out,” said Dr. Horne, “Or especially if you have chest pain when you are sitting and not doing anything, that's something that you should go and see your doctor about.”
