News Release

The environment and cardiovascular disease

An international group of experts explains why environmental stressors may cause myocardial infarction, arterial hypertension, heart failure, arrhythmia and stroke

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Dpt of Cardiology - University Medical Center Mainz

  Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are fatal for more than 38 million people each year and are thus the main contributors to the global burden of disease accounting for 70% of mortality. The majority of these deaths are caused by cardiovascular disease (CVD). The risk of NCDs is strongly associated with exposure to environmental stressors such as pollutants in the air, noise exposure, artificial light at night, and climate change, including heat extremes, desert storms, and wildfires. In addition to the traditional risk factors for CVD such as diabetes, arterial hypertension, smoking, hypercholesterolaemia, and genetic predisposition, there is a growing body of evidence showing that physicochemical factors in the environment contribute significantly to the high NCD numbers. Furthermore, urbanization is associated with accumulation and intensification of these stressors. This comprehen-sive expert review will summarize the epidemiology and pathophysiology of environmental stressors with a focus on cardiovascular NCDs. We will also discuss solutions and mitigation measures to lower the impact of environ-mental risk factors with focus on CVD.

   The present review was published by environmental experts such as Mette Sørensen from Denmark, Jos Lelieveld, from the Max Planck Institute  Mainz and Andreas Daiber, vascular biologist of the Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center in Mainz.

   The lead author Thomas Munzel comments: “Everybody is currently experiencing the consequences of climate changes such as wildfires, flooding, and higher temperature in combination with air and noise pollution. Much less is known concerning the capacity of environmental stressors to cause adverse health effects such as cardiovascular diseases like stroke and coronary artery disease and to induce CVD risk factors such as diabetes and arterial hypertension. It is vital that the cardiology societies such as the European Society of Cardiology and the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology acknowledge e.g. noise pollution and air pollution as cardiovascular risk factors. We experience per year 8.8. Million excess deaths due to particulate matter size 2.5µm, thus more deaths than the acknowledged risk factor tobacco smoking. Ambient air pollution also reduces life expectancy (LE) by 2.9 years while smoking reduces LE by 2.2 years. With respect to pathophysiology, oxidative stress and inflammation of the vasculature importantly contributes to the atherosclerotic process”

   Furthermore, urbanization is associated with accumulation and intensification of these stressors. This comprehensive expert review summarizes the epidemiology and pathophysiology of environmental stressors with a focus on cardiovascular NCDs. The review also discusses solutions and mitigation measures to lower the impact of environmental risk factors with focus on cardiovascular disease.


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