Cardiovascular effects of environmental chemicals.

This article presents recent data on several environmental toxins: lead, carbon disulfide, asbestos, arsenic, ozone, cadmium, vinyl chloride, fluorocarbons, freon, and pesticides. These environmental toxins produce both hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias in most studies, and they are not necessarily related to primary lung disease and secondary heart disease. The possible mechanisms that could cause the cardiovascular diseases include (1) damage to the endothelial barrier in the vascular system, (2) activation of leukocytes and platelets, (3) initiation of plaque formation, (4) stimulation of the inflammatory response, (5) kidney-related hypertension, and (6) direct damage to cardiac and blood vessel tissue. Recommendations are that more animal, human cultured cell, and epidemiologic studies should be conducted on the environmental toxins identified in this article.