Study: Ozone may be temp-cardio death link

London -- The ozone may be the key linking high temperature and increased risk of death from heart disease or stroke, British research suggests.

The study, to be published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal, indicated the higher the ozone level, the greater the risk a cardiovascular death that could be attributable to high temperatures, the British Medical Journal reported.

Researchers base their findings on a population of nearly 100 million people in 95 U.S. geographical areas from June to September. The study's participants were taking part in the National Mortality and Air Pollution Study, which examined health and weather pollution between 1987 and 2000.

During the 2007 study period, 4 million heart attacks or strokes occurred, the authors said. When researchers plotted daily deaths against fluctuations in temperature during one day, they found ozone was a common link.

A 10-degree temperature increase on the same day was linked with a rise in heart disease or stroke deaths of just greater than 1 percent at the lowest ozone level, and by more than 8 percent for the highest levels, the medical journal reported.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.