Environmental Pollution Factors Research Articles

Correlation between lead and prolactin in males exposed and unexposed to lead in Buenos Aires (Argentina) area.

Lead is an important factor in environmental pollution due to its intensive industrial use and in Argentina it is perhaps the main industrial contaminant. In most cases lead toxicity is related to alterations in heme synthesis. It is also responsible for changes in the central nervous system. Researchers have reported the action of lead on the dopaminergic transmission mechanism in the central nervous system of rats. The control of prolactin levels by an agent whose identity is still uncertain is known to involve undoubtedly a dopaminergic mechanism by which an increase in dopamine depresses plasma prolactin values. The purpose of this work was to determine the correlation between blood lead and plasma prolactin levels in humans. Normal plasma prolactin and blood lead values in healthy individuals exposed to lead at work had already been obtained in males and ranged from 1 to 17 ng/ml for prolactin and up to 26 ug/100 ml for lead.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: risk factors, pathophysiology and pathogenesis.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is defined in this chapter, and the relation between its two major components, (a) chronic bronchitis and emphysema and (b) nonremitting asthma, is discussed. Intensity of tobacco smoking and age are the major risk factors for the development of chronic airways obstruction. Environmental air pollution, childhood infections, and familial factors other than alpha-1 protease inhibitor deficiency appear to play only small roles. Emphysema is the major cause of severe airways obstruction; bronchiolitis is a contributing factor and likely is responsible for the minor reversible element of airways obstruction. The elastase-antielastase hypothesis, which is based mainly on indirect evidence, is the best explanation for the pathogenesis of emphysema. Extensive airspace enlargement with fibrosis is infrequently observed; this mechanism may play a role in the pathogenesis of the centrilobular emphysema of smokers.