Yasmina Kattou (Photo credit: LILIAN CAZABET/HANS LUCAS VIA AFP) 09:05, April 26, 2023

According to the work of Inserm and the Sorbonne University, it only takes a few minutes of exposure to air pollution to observe an increase in blood pressure. And if these peaks are repeated, they could eventually lead to chronic high blood pressure. A breakthrough in the search for risks caused by polluted air.

Just five minutes after exposure to pollutants in the air, the body reacts with a spike in tension. This was revealed by a team from Inserm and Sorbonne University, with the help of international collaborators, in a study on the impact in everyday life of a mixture of five air pollutants on the blood pressure of the inhabitants of Greater Paris. This work was published in the journal Environmental Research.

>> READ ALSO - Life expectancy: why rural-urban gaps are widening

Diesel engines singled out

The phenomenon was found in all 221 study participants, all of whom were healthy. Their blood pressure increased with each daily trip through the streets of Paris. And for good reason, one of the pollutants responsible for voltage peaks is at the exit of car exhaust pipes. "The main source of carbon emissions tracked in our studies is mainly diesel engines. This explains why the participants, during their travels, were exposed to this pollutant which led to its rise in blood pressure," explains Basile Chaix, researcher for Inserm and Sorbonne University.

According to the researcher, over the years, these repeated peaks of tension on a daily basis could eventually lead to chronic high blood pressure, a disease responsible for cardiovascular or neurodegenerative complications.