The global impact of air pollution is a familiar and ever-present issue affecting modern life. The morbidity and mortality links with air pollution are well evidenced to numerous health conditions including COPD, neurodegenerative diseases, kidney disease and congenital defects to name but a few (1). Over the last two decades there has been a surge in research assessing toxic effects of air pollution on heart disease and associated deaths. The gravity of the problem is that air pollution affects everyone, with the World Health Organisation reporting in 2022 that only 1% of the global population are currently living in conditions which are under the recommended targets for air pollution exposure (2). The Global Exposure Mortality Model performed by Burnett & colleagues demonstrated that exposure to outdoor air pollution could be as dangerous as cigarette smoking in relation to deaths worldwide (3–5).
