Freeway Pollution Causes Brain Damage In Mice: Study

LOS ANGELES – Southern California freeway pollution, already linked to heart and respiratory problems, causes significant brain damage in mice, according to a study released on Thursday.

The damage is done not by smog but by tiny particles, each roughly one-thousandth the width of a human hair, made up of burning fossil fuel and weathering of car parts and pavement, the University of Southern California study found.

Exposure to the particles, which are too small to be captured by car filtering systems, were shown to significantly damage neurons used in learning and memory, as well as cause signs of inflammation associated with premature aging and Alzheimer's disease.

"We're looking at one particular component of air pollution. These are very, very small particles that aren't really studied or looked at by the (Environmental Protection Agency) even," said Todd Morgan, a USC gerontology professor and author of the study.

Morgan said the study was the first to explore in depth the effects of road pollution on brain cells. He also said it should prompt further review of potential health hazards, for example to children who attend schools near major freeways.

To conduct the study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, scientists recreated air laden with freeway particulate matter in a laboratory and exposed live mice for a total of 150 hours over 10 weeks.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb, editing by Ellen Wulfhorst)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[R2D2-51]

12:01 AM on 04/13/2011

Trust me.. you have a better chance of losing your life by road rage between the hours of 3-6 pm on the I-110 Freeway South to Long Beach heading out of LA than you do by Commuting everyday on this same freeway, driving a permanent convertible with the vents wide open, the windshield blown out by a south central drive-by with your mouth wide open as a permanent heavy chunk particulate collector.

[Jess Level]

08:50 PM on 04/11/2011

This truly explains LA to me. Duh ! Of course ! Brain Damage...

[R2D2-51]

12:15 AM on 04/13/2011

What you think the Hominids living in LA are any different in the way they manage their lives in any other urban sprawl castigated by Neoliberal Capitalism designed to keep the average John Q Hominid pinned to the hamster wheel, where 1 second is a lifetime having to wait for 1 car to go by where it's clear for a mile missing that car by a nano-second to save that split second, because nothing can stand still for your obsession to be engaged with the next actor in the play your directing in the game of control over people places & things for which you really have no control leading you in to middle aged life as a neurotic hypertensive alcoholic bent on self medicating your stressed out life of perpetual non-control in chase to control everything in your life in a futile effort to find peace of mind & tranquility in a world bent on socio-pathic consumer insanity of non-spiritual fulfillment outside the natural world intend3d for your life of serenity.

Good luck with that one.

[personal beliefs]

04:36 PM on 04/11/2011

The left should be calling for the banning of cars. This is the exact same thing as banning cigs in public places but consistency is not the left's friend.

[R2D2-51]

11:47 PM on 04/12/2011

After that report I am surprised you haven't moved right down to 4th & Spring Streets and bought a convertible that lost it's top for your commute everyday..

[alteredstory]

11:52 AM on 04/14/2011

Well, the report said that electrics would improve the problem, though not remove it. I've been calling for an end to fossil fuel use for years now, and that includes internal combustion engines.

On top of that, I think we should put a really good rail network in place, and get rid of the freeway system - use freight trains instead of trucking, and commuter trains for cross-country travel that's not done by plane. This has also been a goal for some years.

Sorry, were you saying something about consistency?

[Living ECO]

02:18 PM on 04/11/2011

This is how the pro-brain damage for profit lobby (big oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear) wants it, right? The more damage done to your brain, the more likely you'll believe the biggest fraud in the history of mankind, perpetrated by by big _dirty_ oil, nuclear, natural gas, coal, which is that we need fossil fuels in order to have a vibrant economy.

For the staggering and devastating cost that fossil fuels do to human health and the environment alone, we could put solar panels on every roof, geothermal under every home, wave, wind for every town _and_ everyone in the U.S. an electric car, and here's another secret. Putting solar panels on every roof would make the country more of a democracy, because it would democratize energy. It's also capitalist, because it would turn you into an electric company (selling back to the grid) and would make you more free, because you would no longer be required to go to the gas station to fill your car up, change the oil, etc. Solar panels, wind, wave, geothermal energy are the way to go.

Instead, these pro-brain damage for profit bullies would prefer that we all die of cancer while simultaneously pushing species to the biggest mass extinction in 65 million years and poisoning every corner of the globe while they stifle freedoms, force us into war for oil, and put the entire planet at risk.

[babyjesussaysso]

02:13 PM on 04/11/2011

If you are planning on traveling on the freeway in LA leave your mouse at home please.

[R2D2-51]

12:19 AM on 04/13/2011

What happened? Did the control group short circuit their memory sticks?

[Genders]

06:48 PM on 04/10/2011

Damages commuters brains too, duh.

[R2D2-51]

12:28 AM on 04/13/2011

Whud they do, put these control groups into the same kind of open screen cages they do for haulers of Tyson's Chickens going to the processing plant & mount particular capture devices on their beaks as they had one group going west bound 60 to LA, another group in cages going north bound I-605 to west bound I-5 into LA and another group coming East bound on Ventura Freeway 101 into Sepulveda pass.

And did this M-F for 6 months running, whereby the pulled the collectors cups off each week to do a dose response approximation of exposure from the volume in the collector cups, then cross reference the control 7 experimental groups to correlate exposure rats for eventual cancer detection?

[rdk70816]

12:51 PM on 04/09/2011

Keep the mice off the freeway.

[R2D2-51]

12:49 AM on 04/13/2011

I ran my own empirical study beginning in the 950's and by 1988 when I was riding a motorcycle to work on the freeway everyday had realized my dose response to particulate matter I had was equal to a cumulative lifetime exposure dose so I said Sayanora SoCal & moved to Idaho.

The amount of residue from the road & the crud I had to wash off when Id get home was nasty; it was enough to give anyone the Heebee Jeebee's.

And the icing on the cake was what I learned having to change a tire one time in the emergency lane next to fast lane center divider on the I-5 Freeway coming out of LA on my way up to the grapevine.

It was unbelievable the film & rocky type asphalt particulate matter, almost like over-sized rock salt residual stuff that lands on your arms, your face in your eyes and every other orifice collector cup there is.

I thought, gee, this stuff can't be good for you. Just think of all the CHP motor officers riding bikes -12 hours a day in that junk for a working lifetime. They could easily setup a good definitive study using CA Highway Patrol Motor Officers...ya think?
fast

[Littlewords]

05:21 PM on 04/08/2011

And is suspected as a possible source causing people to contemplate acts of idi0cy such as joining the Tea Party.

[InStl]

04:09 PM on 04/08/2011

Personally I don't like mice or rats. The dumber they are the easier it is to kill them. Fine with me.

[Genders]

06:48 PM on 04/10/2011

people too?

[Chuck Rewalt]

11:00 AM on 04/08/2011

Roll down the windows.. Take a deep breath.. Don't be confused with the facts.. Pay your taxes and don't worry about social security.. You will be just fine.. I feel better already..

[ackezzy]

10:18 AM on 04/08/2011

I live near DC, this explains the drivers here i swear their IQ is lower than average

[ninjalisacat]

11:27 AM on 04/08/2011

not just DC...all over America the average IQ is rapidly dropping to on average 70 (or below) even the military is sending potential recruits home because they all have adhd & are testing @ 70 or below which is technically....welll...a disability is the only polite way to say it & I am usually not so polite but the censors here don't let me use the proper word.

[mairs]

12:03 PM on 04/08/2011

Do you have any links to back up your claim?

[ackezzy]

01:44 PM on 04/08/2011

Yea i dont doubt that, im still having trouble not calling people the r-word too, I swear people here dont know how to drive. Im originally from the midwest and there is a noticable difference in driving ability.

[shespeaks]

09:55 AM on 04/08/2011

Old mice in hats.

[shespeaks]

09:54 AM on 04/08/2011

It's not funny. But how did they get all those mice to drive on the freeway?

[JScott]

01:19 PM on 04/08/2011

Same way Toonces drives and the way the cat and dog drive in the Geico commercial.

[Meesterclean]

09:11 AM on 04/08/2011

The car is antiquated. Public transport is the way to go for the environment, for speed, for safety, and for economic independence. Building a national network would put us all to work.

[IndyFem]

08:43 AM on 04/08/2011

Is this more damaging to a person's health than..catching a few whiffs of someones cigarette at the beach? Hmmmm...Lets ban cars too!