diesel fumes harm arteries

diesel needs to be eliminated, yesterday.

Diesel Exhaust Chokes Human Arteries
December 20, 2005 08:41:13 PM PST
By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Dec. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Fumes belched from 18-wheelers and other diesel-powered vehicles and engines may be especially tough on the human cardiovascular system, new research reveals.

In a carefully controlled study, the arteries of healthy volunteers exposed to diesel exhaust lost part of their ability to expand, while their blood became more likely to clot.

The bad news about the cardiovascular harm that polluted air can inflict doesn't end there.

In a study reported in the Dec. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, New York University researchers found that mice exposed to air as polluted as what floats around New York City showed that the effects can be particularly damaging, especially when coupled with a high-fat diet.
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A number of real-world studies have linked diesel fume exposure to heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems, Mills noted.

"However, observational studies cannot prove causality," he said. "In human exposure studies, we can control for all potential confounding factors and assess the direct effect of particulates on the cardiovascular system. Our findings provide further support for the observational studies and a plausible mechanism to explain association between particles and acute cardiovascular events."

It's not clear whether the findings apply to gasoline-powered engines, Mills said, because their emissions are very different from those of diesel-powered engines. In particular, diesel exhaust generates 100 times more pollutant particles, he said.
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