On the Back Cover
Environmental Cardiology: Pollution and Heart Disease is the first landmark publication to provide a comprehensive multidisciplinary review on the emerging field of environmental cardiology and current research linking pollutant exposure to heart disease. The book begins with an introductory chapter on the environmental basis of cardiovascular disease and the role of the environment in evolution. It provides a new classification for the different categories of the human environment and provides an in-depth analysis of the role of the natural, social and personal environments in modifying and transmitting the risk for heart disease. Subsequent chapters discuss how exposure to particulate air pollutants, vehicular exhaust, manufactured nanoparticles and pollutants such as metals, arsenic and environmental aldehydes affect the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Both experimental and epidemiological evidence are discussed as well as the impact of exposure to air pollution on hypertension, atherogenesis, ischemic heart disease and heart failure. There is also new evidence supporting a link between exposure to environmental pollutants and stoke, obesity and diabetes. The understanding that emerges from this book suggests that we must be more alert to the effects of the environment and develop strategies that target, not only the diseased individual, but also the unhealthy, disease-causing environment. It is essential reading for cardiologists, epidemiologists, urban planners and pollution control specialists.
