Researchers at the University of Southern California found that short-term exposure to traffic pollution causes brain damage.
And mice exposed to a smoky cocktail of vehicle emissions – including burnt fossil fuels, weathered car parts and pavement – exhibited signs of memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease after just a few tokes.
The study appeared in Thursday’s online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives.
Several studies have shown a correlation between traffic pollution and ill health. But this is the first to look for a direct link between vehicle emissions and brain damage.
The researchers collected air samples from the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles onto filters, added a little water to them, and then freeze-dried the particles until they were ready to begin the experiment.
They also filtered out anything that wasn’t nano-sized.
They then exposed mice to the air-borne particles for five hours a day, three times a week, for ten weeks.
And they were surprised by what they had found.
“We’d been looking at the effects of the environment, and diet in particular, on the brain. And we knew that air pollution, specifically traffic pollution, has shown effects on lungs and the respiratory system,” said Todd Morgan, lead author of the study and a researcher at USC. “We wanted to see what impact it had on the brain. We know that there are neurons – olfactory neurons – that lead straight from the nose into the brain.”