Objective: Outdoor workers are daily exposed to urban pollutants. The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between the values of environmental monitoring collected by personal dosimetries and changes in blood pressure due to posture in outdoor workers.
Materials and methods: 32 subjects of both sexes were enrolled in the study, we evaluated the values of environmental monitoring of breathable dust, nickel, arsenic, cadmium, lead, benzene, toluene, xylene and 16 PAHs. Blood pressure in supine and standing positions was measured in all subjects.
Results: The multiple linear regression analysis showed a significant reduction of orthostatic response of diastolic blood pressure in non-smoking outdoor workers occupationally exposed to cadmium.
Conclusions: The results of our study let us to believe that exposure to low doses of urban polluted cadmium may affect the response of diastolic blood pressure to orthostatism, as per a paraphysiological condition of sympathetic down-regulation.