Thaindian News

Washington, Apr 8 (ANI): A study has found that mice, which are exposed to short-term vehicle pollution, show significant brain damage, including signs associated with memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the study, the mind-numbing toxin is not an exhaust gas, but a mix of tiny particles from burning of fossil fuel and weathering of car parts and pavement.

Many studies have drawn a link between vehicle pollution and health problems, but this is the first to explore the physical effect of freeway pollution on brain cells.

The authors found a way to recreate air laden with freeway particulate matter inside the laboratory.

Whether in a test tube or in live mice, brain cells showed similar responses.

Neurons involved in learning and memory showed significant damage, the brain showed signs of inflammation associated with premature aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Neurons from developing mice did not grow as well.

The freeway particles measured between a few dozen to 200 nanometers - roughly one-thousandth the width of a human hair, and too small for car filtration systems to trap.

Senior author Caleb Finch, an expert in the effects of inflammation and holder of the ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging, said the inhaled particles affect brain neurons.

“You can’t see them, but they are inhaled and have an effect on brain neurons that raises the possibility of long-term brain health consequences of freeway air,” Finch said.

Co-author Constantinos Sioutas, of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, developed the unique technology for collecting freeway particulates in a liquid suspension and recreating polluted air in the laboratory.

This made it possible to conduct a controlled study on cultured brain cells and live animals.

Exposure lasted a total of 150 hours, spread over 10 weeks, in three sessions per week lasting five hours each.

“Of course this leads to the question, ‘How can we protect urban dwellers from this type of toxicity?’ And that’s a huge unknown,” Finch said.

If further studies confirm that freeway particulates pose a human health hazard, solutions will be hard to find.

Finch said even an all-electric car culture would not solve the problem on its own.

“It would certainly sharply decrease the local concentration of nanoparticles, but then at present electrical generation still depends upon other combustion processes - coal - that in a larger environment contribute nanoparticles anyway,” he said.

“It’s a long-term global project to reduce the amount of nanoparticles around the world. Whether we clean up our cars, we still have to clean up our power generation,” he added.

The study is to be published in the leading journal Environmental Health Perspectives. (ANI)