HEERLEN, Netherlands, March 11 (UPI) -- A Dutch study found that even a short exposure to diesel exhaust fumes can alter brain activity.
Lead researcher Paul Borm of Zuyd University in The Netherlands had 10 volunteers spent one hour in a room filled with either clean air or exhaust from a diesel engine.
The volunteers were wired up to an electroencephalograph machine that records the electrical signals of the brain. Brain waves were monitored during the exposure period and for one hour after they left the room.
The study, published in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology, found that after about 30 minutes the diesel exhaust began to affect brain activity.
The findings suggest a stress response, indicative of changed information processing in the brain cortex, which continued to increase even after the subjects had left the exposure chamber.
"We believe our findings are due to an effect (of) nanoparticles or 'soot' particles that are major component of diesel exhaust," Borm said in a statement. "These may penetrate to the brain and affect brain function. We can only speculate what these effects may mean for the chronic exposure to air pollution encountered in busy cities where the levels of such soot particles can be very high."
