Summary:
According to a new scientific statement released by the American Heart Association (AHA), chronic exposure to low or moderate levels of lead, cadmium, and arsenic can lead to cardiovascular disease, including coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease. While traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease do not include environmental toxins, the field of environmental cardiology identifies exposure to polluting metals as a modifiable risk for cardiovascular disease. Exposure to polluting metals can occur involuntarily through activities of daily living, such as contaminated food, water pipes, spices, tobacco products, secondhand smoke, cosmetics, electronics, and industrial emissions. The statement calls for monitoring environmental levels of metals and testing individuals for metals as key steps in implementing appropriate public health initiatives. Additionally, the statement suggests reducing exposure to metals in tobacco, protecting community water systems and wells, and minimizing metal contamination in air, food, and soil as examples of safety measures. The authors also suggest conducting future research to develop clinical interventions that remove metals or weaken their effects in the body, such as chelating agents and nutritional supplements like folate and N-acetylcysteine.
Additional Piece:
Exposure to environmental toxins such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic is a major public health concern with cardiovascular disease as a common adverse effect of prolonged exposure. Although the sources of exposure to these toxic metals vary widely, there are ways to reduce exposure to them in our immediate environments. Individuals can take proactive steps such as purchasing unglazed terracotta cookware to avoid exposure to lead and cadmium tainted glazes or purchasing a reverse osmosis system or using distillation to remove contaminants from drinking water. These simple steps can help an individual reduce the risk of contamination when environmental regulations are poorly enforced.
Reducing exposure to environmental toxins is just a small part of a much larger systemic problem. Low-income communities are disproportionately affected by environmental toxins through contaminated air, water, and soil, as demonstrated by the Flint Water crisis. Addressing issues like this is what environmental justice seeks to accomplish. Environmental justice advocates for fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, income, and other factors, in the environment. Environmental justice is a movement that seeks to address the human and environmental implications of social inequality.
The impact of environmental justice can be seen in the work of grassroots organizations like the Moving Forward Network, which fights for clean air in low-income communities and communities of color that are disproportionately affected by pollution and toxics. Similarly, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice works hand in hand with communities, especially those facing environmental, economic, and social injustice, to fight for positive change. Integrating environmental justice into policy and decision-making can ultimately help reduce health disparities resulting from environmental toxins.
In conclusion, reducing exposure to polluting metals by adopting proactive measures is crucial, but it is just one aspect of a larger movement for environmental justice. It is essential to continue to work in partnership with the AHA, city councils, grassroots organizations, and the larger public health community to fight for clean air, clean water, and clean soil.
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According to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association published today in the journal Journal of the American Heart Association, a peer-reviewed open access journal of the American Heart Association.
This scientific statement reviews the evidence linking chronic exposure to low or moderate levels of three polluting metals (lead, cadmium, and arsenic) with cardiovascular disease, including coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease. It highlights the clinical and public health implications. Traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease currently do not include environmental toxins. The field of environmental cardiology identifies exposure to pollutants, including polluting metals, as modifiable risks for cardiovascular disease.
“Large population studies indicate that even low-level exposure to contaminating metals is nearly universal and contributes to the burden of cardiovascular disease, especially heart attack, stroke, leg artery disease, and premature death from cardiac causes.” Gervasio said. A. Lamas, MD, FAHA, chair of the statement writing group and chair of medicine and chief of the Division of Cardiology at Columbia University at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida.
“These metals interfere with essential biological functions and affect most populations on a global scale,” said statement writing group vice chair Ana Navas-Acien, MD, Ph.D., professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Science. She is Public Health and director of the Northern Plains Superfund Research Program at Columbia University in New York City. “After exposure, lead and cadmium accumulate in the body and remain in bones and organs for decades. In the US alone, a large study suggested that more than 450,000 deaths annually could be attributed to exposure to lead”.
Where are people exposed to contaminating metals?
Exposure to polluting metals occurs most often involuntarily, through activities of daily living. Lead can be found in a variety of items, such as paint in older homes (lead paint was banned in the US in 1978), tobacco products, secondhand smoke, contaminated food (groundwater and some pottery, ceramics and kitchen utensils are sources of contamination). lead contamination in food), water pipes, spices, cosmetics, electronics, and industrial emissions. Cigarette smoking is a source of both lead and cadmium.
Cadmium is found in nickel-cadmium batteries, pigments, plastic, ceramics and glassware, and construction products. Industrially produced fertilizers use phosphate rock that is naturally rich in cadmium, which then contaminates root crops and green leafy plants (including tobacco).
Exposure to arsenic occurs primarily through groundwater, affecting drinking water, soil, and food grown in contaminated soil. In particular, arsenic accumulates in rice more than in other food crops.
While exposure and risk occur in diverse populations, regardless of socioeconomic status, some people experience increased exposure to toxic metals, according to the statement. The risk of exposure is greatest for people who live closest to major highways, industrial sources, and hazardous waste sites; reside in older houses; or in areas where environmental regulations are poorly enforced and responses to community complaints are inadequate.
“This is a global problem in which low-income communities are disproportionately exposed to toxic metals through contaminated air, water and soil,” Navas-Acien said. “Addressing metal exposure in these populations may provide a strategy to reduce cardiovascular disease disparities and promote environmental justice.”
What are the cardiovascular risks of polluting metals?
The scientific statement describes global epidemiological research confirming that lead, cadmium and arsenic are associated with premature death, due in large part to increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Global research includes:
- A 2021 American Heart Association scientific statement recognized exposure to toxic metals as an unconventional risk factor for peripheral arterial disease.
- A 2018 review published in the British Medical Journal evaluated 37 studies representing almost 350,000 people from more than a dozen countries. The review reported that higher levels of arsenic in the urine and levels of lead and cadmium in the blood were associated with a 15% to 85% increased risk of stroke and heart disease.
- One study in China found that higher blood lead levels were associated with carotid plaque in people with type 2 diabetes. Another found that cadmium and arsenic were associated with a higher rate of heart disease and ischemic stroke.
- In Spain, a general population study found that urinary cadmium was associated with higher rates of newly diagnosed cardiovascular disease.
What can be done with metals in the environment?
Monitoring environmental levels of metals and testing individuals for metals are key steps in implementing appropriate public health initiatives, the writing group suggests. Lead levels in children with symptoms of exposure are monitored by health professionals through blood tests. However, there are no monitoring guidelines or established exposure limits for metal contaminants in adults other than those required for specific types of work. Future research is needed to establish whether such tests can be an effective strategy to identify and protect people at risk for cardiovascular disease.
The authors of the statement point to reducing exposure to metals in tobacco, protecting community water systems and wells, and minimizing metal contamination in air, food, and soil as examples of safety measures. public health that can reduce exposure to metals.
“Cardiovascular health can be improved with a multipronged approach that recognizes environmental cardiology and includes environmental monitoring and biomonitoring of metal contaminants, control of sources of exposure, and development of clinical interventions that remove metals or weaken their effects.” in the body,” Lamas said. , who is also a professor of medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.
While there is currently no standard medical therapy to counteract the vascular impact of contaminating metals, there is ongoing research to address the potential of treating people for exposure. Some research is evaluating the effect of chelating agents, which are drugs that can remove contaminating metals, especially lead and cadmium, from the body. The chelating agent binds to the metals so they can be excreted. Furthermore, the statement suggests that research is needed to investigate nutritional supplements that may reduce the effects of contaminating metals and speed excretion. Supplements that have shown potential based on small trials include folate and N-acetylcysteine.
This scientific statement was prepared by the volunteer writing group on behalf of the American Heart Association’s Council on Epidemiology and Prevention; the Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing Council; the Council for Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health; the Peripheral Vascular Disease Council; and the Kidney Council on Cardiovascular Diseases. Scientific statements from the American Heart Association promote greater awareness of cardiovascular disease and stroke and help facilitate informed health care decisions. Scientific statements describe what is currently known about a topic and what areas need further research. While scientific statements inform guideline development, they do not make treatment recommendations. The American Heart Association guidelines provide the Association’s official clinical practice recommendations.
The Association receives funding mainly from individuals. Foundations and corporations (including pharmaceuticals, device manufacturers, and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing scientific content. Revenues for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers, and general financial information for the Association are available here.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230612114722.htm
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