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EHHI :: The Harmful Effects of Vehicle Exhaust
"Summary of Findings
* Air Pollution and Human Health
Scientific experts now believe the nation faces an epidemic of illnesses that are exacerbated by air pollution. These illnesses include cardiovascular disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and diabetes.
Cancer
Vehicles emit numerous carcinogenic chemicals. Diesel contains benzene, formaldehyde, and 1,3-butadiene—all three are well recognized carcinogens. EPA estimates that vehicle emissions account for as many as half of all cancers attributed to outdoor air pollution.
# Diesel Exhaust
Diesel exhaust is especially dangerous, containing nearly 40 hazardous pollutants. The mixture contains carbon particles that are exceptionally small in size, less than one micron. These fine particles may be deeply inhaled into the lung and carry with them a collection of attached hazardous compounds. Diesel emissions increase the severity and duration of asthma attacks.
# Diesel Emissions
The California Air Resources Board concluded that diesel emissions account for the majority of cancer risk created by all outdoor air pollution sources in the state. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children’s exposure to diesel exhaust particles should be decreased and that idling of diesel vehicles in places where children live and congregate should be minimized to protect their health. (31) School bus particulate emissions sometimes exceed the federal PM2.5 standards by as much as ten-fold."
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Psychiatric Effects:
"Recent studies show that breathing street-level fumes for just 30 minutes can intensify electrical activity in brain regions responsible for behavior, personality and decision-making, changes that are suggestive of stress, scientists in the Netherlands recently discovered. Breathing normal city air with high levels of traffic exhaust for 90 days can change the way that genes turn on or off among the elderly; it can also leave a molecular mark on the genome of a newborn for life, separate research teams at Columbia University and Harvard University reported this year.
Children in areas affected by high levels of emissions, on average, scored more poorly on intelligence tests and were more prone to depression, anxiety and attention problems than children growing up in cleaner air, separate research teams in New York, Boston, Beijing, and Krakow, Poland, found. And older men and women long exposed to higher levels of traffic-related particles and ozone had memory and reasoning problems that effectively added five years to their mental age, other university researchers in Boston reported this year. The emissions may also heighten the risk of Alzheimer's disease and speed the effects of Parkinson's disease.
"The evidence is growing that air pollution can affect the brain," says medical epidemiologist Heather Volk at USC's Keck School of Medicine. "We may be starting to realize the effects are broader than we realized.""
The Hidden Toll of Traffic Jams
"Summary of Findings
* Air Pollution and Human Health
Scientific experts now believe the nation faces an epidemic of illnesses that are exacerbated by air pollution. These illnesses include cardiovascular disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and diabetes.
Cancer
Vehicles emit numerous carcinogenic chemicals. Diesel contains benzene, formaldehyde, and 1,3-butadiene—all three are well recognized carcinogens. EPA estimates that vehicle emissions account for as many as half of all cancers attributed to outdoor air pollution.
# Diesel Exhaust
Diesel exhaust is especially dangerous, containing nearly 40 hazardous pollutants. The mixture contains carbon particles that are exceptionally small in size, less than one micron. These fine particles may be deeply inhaled into the lung and carry with them a collection of attached hazardous compounds. Diesel emissions increase the severity and duration of asthma attacks.
# Diesel Emissions
The California Air Resources Board concluded that diesel emissions account for the majority of cancer risk created by all outdoor air pollution sources in the state. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children’s exposure to diesel exhaust particles should be decreased and that idling of diesel vehicles in places where children live and congregate should be minimized to protect their health. (31) School bus particulate emissions sometimes exceed the federal PM2.5 standards by as much as ten-fold."
____________
Psychiatric Effects:
"Recent studies show that breathing street-level fumes for just 30 minutes can intensify electrical activity in brain regions responsible for behavior, personality and decision-making, changes that are suggestive of stress, scientists in the Netherlands recently discovered. Breathing normal city air with high levels of traffic exhaust for 90 days can change the way that genes turn on or off among the elderly; it can also leave a molecular mark on the genome of a newborn for life, separate research teams at Columbia University and Harvard University reported this year.
Children in areas affected by high levels of emissions, on average, scored more poorly on intelligence tests and were more prone to depression, anxiety and attention problems than children growing up in cleaner air, separate research teams in New York, Boston, Beijing, and Krakow, Poland, found. And older men and women long exposed to higher levels of traffic-related particles and ozone had memory and reasoning problems that effectively added five years to their mental age, other university researchers in Boston reported this year. The emissions may also heighten the risk of Alzheimer's disease and speed the effects of Parkinson's disease.
"The evidence is growing that air pollution can affect the brain," says medical epidemiologist Heather Volk at USC's Keck School of Medicine. "We may be starting to realize the effects are broader than we realized.""
The Hidden Toll of Traffic Jams
