Environmental Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease
Usman Sagheer, Sadeer Al‐Kindi, Shady Abohashem, Colin T. Phillips, Jamal S. Rana, Aruni Bhatnagar, Martha Gulati, Sanjay Rajagopalan, Dinesh Kalra
Abstract
With a growing body of evidence that now links environmental pollution to adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes, pollution has emerged as an important risk factor for CVD. There is thus an urgent need to better understand the role of pollution in CVD, key pathophysiological mechanisms, and to raise awareness among health care providers, the scientific community, the general population, and regulatory authorities about the CV impact of pollution and strategies to reduce it. This article is part 2 of a 2-part state-of-the-art review on the topic of pollution and CVD-herein we discuss major environmental pollutants and their effects on CVD, highlighting pathophysiological mechanisms, and strategies to reduce CVD risk.