The health of keen gardeners could be at risk after new research warned soil polluted by pesticides and heavy metals could cause heart disease. Researchers in Germany claim pollutants may cause inflammation and disrupt our body clocks.
The study suggests soil pollution could be raising oxidative stress, which leads to more “bad” free radicals, causing chain reactions in the body that damages other cells and fewer “good” antioxidants, which help stop that process.
It recommends people wear masks outside to avoid damaging their heart when soil is blown into the air by wind. The problem is allegedly more acute in poorer and middle-income countries but is an issue everywhere because of integrated global supply chains.
Existing research has linked pesticides to a higher risk of heart disease. Studies have found links between high blood lead levels and heart disease, while further investigations have suggested arsenic, which is used in industry and can appear in contaminated water used to irrigate crops, can cause heart disease.
Scientists also found a Korean study which linked cadmium which is found in small amounts in air, water, soil and food with stroke and high blood pressure. Even dust from deserts could be damaging people’s hearts when wind sweeps them away and they travel long distances to big cities and towns, the researchers say.
They said people in Japan were 21 per cent more likely to end up in a hospital’s heart department on days when desert dust from China and Mongolia was in the air.
Pollution of air, water and soil is responsible for at least nine million deaths each year. Soil contamination is a less obvious danger to human health than dirty air but more than 60 per cent of pollution-related disease is due to cardiovascular issues such as heart chronic heart disease, heart attacks, stroke and heart rhythm disorders.
Soil pollutants also wash into rivers and create dirty water which people can end up drinking. Study author Professor Thomas Münzel. of the University of Mainz, said: “Evidence is mounting that pollutants in soil may damage cardiovascular health through a number of mechanisms including inflammation and disrupting the body’s natural clock.
“Although soil pollution with heavy metals and its association with cardiovascular diseases is especially a problem low and middle-income countries since their populations are disproportionately exposed to these environmental pollutants, it becomes a problem for any country in the world due to the increasing globalisation of food supply chains and uptake of these heavy metals with fruits, vegetables and meat.
“More studies are needed on the combined effect of multiple soil pollutants on cardiovascular disease since we are rarely exposed to one toxic agent alone. Until we know more, it seems sensible to wear a face mask to limit exposure to windblown dust, filter water to remove contaminants, and buy food grown in healthy soil.”
The findings were published in the journal Cardiovascular Research.
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