Diesel pollution may lead to heart problems

Various smaller studies have tackled the same question: Is air pollution lethal to the heart? And though the best way to answer the question would be to expose people to exhaust, such a test would be unethical, scientists say. Thus, researchers in California who conducted the experiment, used mice.

The team, led by Andre Nel of the University of California, with collaborators at the University of Southern California, discovered that inhaled particles lodge in the lungs and are

carried throughout the body with the blood supply.

“When you add one plus one it normally equals two,” said Constantinos Sioutas, an environmental health specialist at the University of Southern California. “But when you add diesel particles or even particles from multiple vehicular sources, the combination creates a dangerous synergy that wreaks cardiovascular havoc far beyond what would be caused by the particles or the cholesterol alone.”

Sioutas added that diesel particles cause an activation of genes that promote cellular inflammation. The inflammatory response leads to artery hardening and clogging, the cause for heart attacks and strokes.

“This is what regulators need to know in order to reduce air pollution,” Sioutas said. He said that his team plans further studies.

Health organisations have been calling for reducing diesel emissions for years.