New light on exposure to chemicals and cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills and disables millions of people worldwide. Indeed, analysis of disability-adjusted life years shows that CVD is the major contributor to loss of health to mortality and disability in several continents.1 One major contributor to CVD is work environment which can involve multiple risk factors, including exposure to smoke, chemicals and other potentially harmful environmental conditions. Despite substantial research into CVD risk factors and other occupational diseases such as cancer, occupational CVD has not yet been well investigated. For example, we have limited knowledge about the risk factors for occupational CVD, and in particular, if some groups have increased susceptibility, including genetic, to specific risk factors. Some non-chemical risk factors for occupational CVD have been identified, such as noise exposure at work, shift work, physical …