Study Reveals Fine Particle Build-Up in the Lungs
Autopsies of lungs from non-smoking female residents of Mexico City reveal that fine particle air pollutants overwhelm the lung’ clearance mechanisms and are retained in lung tissue. Fine particle air pollutants are implicated in adverse health effects, including cardiopulmonary mortality.
The study compared residents of highly polluted Mexico City with residents of the far cleaner Vancouver, British Columbia, and found significantly higher numbers of particles imbedded in the lungs of in long-term residents of Mexico City. Some of the particles retained in the lungs of Mexico City residents resembled diesel exhaust samples. The study design excluded smokers and those with occupational exposures.
This study provides the first direct evidence that increased lifetime air pollution results in higher particle retention in the lung. The findings provide biological plausibility to epidemiologic studies showing adverse effects of particles from chronic exposures.
The study by Michael Brauer, of the University of British Columbia School of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, and colleagues, was published in the October 2001 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
Brauer, M., Avila-Casado, C., Fortoul,T.I., Vedal, S., Stevens, B., and Churg, A. Air Pollution and Retained Particles in the Lung. Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 109, pp. 1039-1043, 2001.
NIEHS [http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/allpubs.html] offers the abstract online.
