Breaking hearts with toxics
for the first time, a conclusive link between heart ailments and long-term exposure to arsenic has been established by a study. Carried out by researchers from Taipei-based National Taiwan University, the study strongly points to arsenic as one of the risk factors for diseases related to blood vessels. It indicates that there is a strong dose-dependent relationship between arsenic exposure and accelerated development of atherosclerosis disease in arteries that lead to the brain. "Chronic arsenic poisoning called arseniasis is an emerging epidemic in Asia. Our results indicate that long-term arsenic exposure may lead to the progression or acceleration of diseases in carotid arteries that are located in the neck,' said Chih-Hao Wang, the lead author of the study ( www.who.int, March 27, 2002).
During their study, the researchers studied 199 men and 264 women from an area of southwestern Taiwan. The area has high prevalence rate of arseniasis and high rates of blackfoot disease (bfd)