News Items

News Item - July 2006

"Car exhaust pollution reduces lung function in children."

In a recent editorial of the The New England Journal of Medicine* titled "Air Pollution and Children - An Unhealthy Mix" W. James Gauderman, Ph.D. states " In recent reports, air pollution has been linked to increased mortality, an increased risk of asthma, and decreased development of lung function in childhood."

Based upon research undertaken in Leicester UK, and published in this issue of the The New England Journal of Medicine by Neeta Kulkarni, M.D., Nevil Pierse, M.Sc., Lesley Rushton, Ph.D., and Jonathan Grigg, M.D. tilted "Carbon in Airway Macrophages and Lung Function in Children" the editorial continues " The authors show that carbon particles, similar to those in ambient air, are present in the airway macrophages of children and that an increased level of carbon in the macrophages correlates with decreased lung function."

The research studied the effect of carbon primary particulate matter that is less than 10 µm (PM10) in diameter. This type of type of pollution comes largely from motor vehicle emissions

• Read a Medline News article about the research.   pub. July 5th 2006.
  
  
• Read the research abstract.   pub. July 6th 2006.
  
  
• Read the editorial. *  pub. July 6th 2006.