Description
Introduction
Pollution can be defined as hazardous unwanted contaminants released in the air,land and water globally. It is a well-known fact and a cause for growing concern that environmental pollution globally is directly related to several diseases. Data suggests that in 2009 there were 9 million premature deaths recorded due to air pollution alone. One such disease that affects a major organ is chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is one of the leading causes of death globally. CKD can be defined as either a reduced glomerular filtration rate (<60ml/min) or evidence of kidney damage such as albuminuria or abnormal pathology. Recently, researcher have established that the toxins released into the environment have a causal relationship with chronic kidney disease. Kidneys are responsible for the excretion of toxins and waste in the human body and with an ever-growing increase in toxic environmental waste production, the burden on kidneys to process this waste increases. This review aims to establish a direct relationship between chronic kidney disease and environmental pollution by utilizing existing studies.
Methods
In this review, the data was collected systematically by formulating inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies related to the proposed topic. All studies published in English were included. Furthermore, all papers that included chronic kidney disease and environmental pollution were filtered by using the BOOLEAN operators in libraries such as Google Scholar, PubMed, and Cochrane Library. The data collected was tabulated and analysed for statistical significance.
Results
There were various studies illustrating the relationship between environmental pollution and chronic kidney disease. In one of the cross-sectional studies, consumption of contaminated water, which was polluted with arsenic resulted in renal injury and hypertension, which in turn increased the incidence of chronic kidney disease. Another toxic element in the environment that heavily depends on kidneys for excretion is lead. Some of the studies that were analysed revealed that acute lead intoxication results in proximal tubular dysfunction and results in chronic kidney disease(CKD). Furthermore, a major contributing factor to CKD is air pollution. Air pollution contains contaminants such as sulphates, nitrates, and other metals that cause the decline of glomerular function and increase the incidence of chronic kidney disease(CKD). Some studies have shown the relationship between particulate matter(PM) in air and risks of chronic kidney disease progression.
Conclusion
Chronic kidney disease(CKD) is a major cause of death around the world. Although it has several risk factors that contribute to its progression, recently it has been discovered that chronic kidney disease can be related to toxins released into the environment. Environmental pollution has several denominations and unsurprisingly most of these pose a direct risk to the kidneys and result in chronic kidney disease. In this review, it was identified that several such toxins in air, land and water are ingested due to environmental exposure and processed by kidneys for excretion. Prolonged exposure to these toxins has had a greater impact on increasing the incidence of chronic kidney disease. Environmental pollution poses a grave threat to human kidneys, therefore further research is warranted.
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