James Randerson, science correspondent
The Guardian, Tuesday March 11 2008Half an hour of sniffing diesel fumes in a busy city street is enough to induce a "stress response" in the brain, according to scientists who measured volunteers.
The response continued to increase even after they had stopped breathing the fumes.
The researchers speculate in a study published today that the changes in the brain may trigger other well-established body responses to diesel fumes, such as oxygen deprivation in the heart.
"The changes that we see can be interpreted as a stress response," said Thomas Sandström at the University of Umeå in Sweden.
"For the first time ever, air pollution effects in the brain have been visualised, which is an effect previously unheard of."
So that's why the air quality in New York City was so hard on me! And why I feel so much better since I moved to New Mexico....
Would be nice to know what effect the fumes had on breath values. I'll look for this study when it publishes, and give more details here.
