Any city-dweller is familiar with the noxious fumes
that emanate from vehicles, and many an urbanite has
experienced a "smog day." But in the news recently,
two more studies have come out revealing the dangers
of air pollution.
An
article in the March 2005 issue of the journal
Occupational and Environmental Medicine
found that air pollution has the ability to "alter
macrophage, epithelial, and endothelial cell function
to favour blood coagulation." In addition to the blood-thickening
effect, inflammatory activity and the rate of death
of immune cells significantly increased with exposure
to pollutants. This study could help explain the link
between poor air quality and increased risk of heart
attacks and strokes. (See our news item from
October 22, 2004.)
The second, a study
released in the March issue of
Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention,
and whose results were summarized in a
press release from the
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,
discovered that pollutants harm unborn babies. The
study, which looked at newborns in New York City, found
that air pollution (including vehicular emissions,
residential heating, power generation, and tobacco
smoke) may alter the structure of babies' chromosomes
while in the womb. The study's senior author, Dr. Frederica
P. Perera, had previously found that combustion-related
air pollutants significantly reduce fetal growth, which
may affect cognitive development during childhood.
Now, of this current study, Perera said, "This evidence
that air pollutants can alter chromosomes in utero
is troubling since other studies have validated this
type of genetic alteration as a biomarker of cancer
risk."
Maybe we should all work harder to clean up our air
…
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Article published on Feb 26
05 12:59AM.
