[Role of environment in complex diseases: air pollution and food contaminants]

Rev Med Liege. 2012 May-Jun;67(5-6):226-33.
[Article in French]

Abstract

Our polluted environment exposes human beings, along their life, to various toxic compounds that could trigger and aggravate different complex diseases. Such a phenomenon is well recognized for cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases and cancers, but other chronic inflammatory disorders may also been implicated. The most common factors, but also the most toxic, and thereby the most extensively investigated, are air pollutants (both indoor and outdoor pollution) and various contaminants present in drinking water and food (organic compounds, chemical products, heavy metals, ...). The complex interrelationships between food and pollutants, on the one hand, and between gene and environmental pollutants, including the influence of epigenetics, on the other hand, deserve further careful studies.

Publication types

  • English Abstract
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollution / adverse effects
  • Air Pollution / statistics & numerical data
  • Causality
  • Disease / etiology*
  • Disease / genetics
  • Environment*
  • Environmental Exposure / statistics & numerical data
  • Environmental Pollutants / adverse effects
  • Epigenesis, Genetic / physiology
  • Food Contamination* / statistics & numerical data
  • Humans
  • Models, Biological

Substances

  • Environmental Pollutants