Exposure to chemical may cause heart disease: Study

Exposure to perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA), a man-made chemical used in the manufacture of lubricants, polishes, paper and textile coatings and food packaging, may be linked with heart disease and peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

PAD is a disease in which plaque builds up in the arteries that carry blood to your head, organs, and limbs.

Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, fibrous tissue and other substances in the blood. When plaque builds up in the arteries, the condition is called atherosclerosis.

Surveys have suggested that PFOA is detectable in the blood of more than 98 percent of the US population.

Some evidence has suggested that an association may be biologically plausible between PFOA exposure and cardiovascular disease (CVD), the journal Archives of Internal Medicine reports.

Anoop Shankar and colleagues from the West Virginia University School of Public Health, Morgantown, examined the link between serum (blood) levels of PFOA and the presence of CVD and PAD, a marker of atherosclerosis, in a nationally representative group of adults.

The study used merged data from the 1999-2000 and 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Based on 1,216 individuals, the research suggests that increasing serum PFOA levels were positively linked with the presence of CVD and PAD, which appears to be independent of age, sex, race/ethnicity, smoking status, body mass index, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, etc., according to a West Virginia statement.