Kids aren't the only ones suffering the ill effects of vehicle pollution. Scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting say that pollution caused by car exhaust may be causing detrimental damage that leads to heart attacks.

"In rapidly modernising regions, environmental regulations are frequently avoided in the interest of improving economic growth," said Matt Campen, of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. "Thus, the global cardiovascular health burden from air pollution is likely to escalate dramatically over the coming decades."

The situation is apparently so dire that exposure to these toxic fumes can lead to life-threatening heart attacks within mere hours, though researchers also say the long-term effects of cardiovascular disease are just as prominent.

Scientist John Incardona from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made the discovery of oil's damaging effects to the heart when examining the hearts of developing Pacific herring and pink salmon embryos after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

"When we first started studying the effects of oil on fish embryos I really never thought it would be applicable to human health," he said. "It turns out that fish hearts even in the embryo function more like human hearts than even mice or rats - the usual test animals in human health studies."

Does anyone else find it ironic that health-conscious individuals avoid big, fatty steaks, mini-kegs of beer and cigarettes to avoid heart disease and damage and are essentially exposed to the same risks just by breathing the air around them? And chances are that that risk increases as they run an outdoor marathon mistakenly believing they are doing something beneficial for their health and their heart.

» Guardian