StudySoCal's polluted air to brain, heart problems

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Study links SoCal's polluted air to brain, heart problems

_http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_air19.3aa6abb.html

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(http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_air19.3aa6abb.html)

By DAVID DANELSKI

The Press-Enterprise

Mice subjected to Southern California's foul air developed changes in their

brains similar to those found in people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's

diseases, a UC Irvine scientist said Tuesday.

More research will be needed to determine whether fine-particle air

pollution can cause the diseases, toxicologist Michael Kleinman said by

telephone. He

was in Seattle to present the results of his study during the Society of

Toxicology's annual meeting.

Kleinman's mouse study was a follow-up to earlier research which found that

mice exposed to the same type of pollution were more prone to heart disease.

" We really didn't expect to find important effects inside the brain, "

Kleinman said.

His work also confirmed the earlier findings. In research done near UC

Riverside, mice that breathed polluted air developed clogged arteries and

reduced

heart function more quickly than mice that breathed purified air.

Western Riverside and San Bernardino counties have among the worst

fine-particle pollution in the nation, a result of diesel soot and other

emissions,

wind patterns and geography. The microscopic particles already have been linked

to early deaths, asthma hospitalizations and stunted lung development in

children, among other health problems.

Kleinman's findings on brain effects most likely will prompt more studies,

said Jean Ospital, the health effects officer for the South Coast Air Quality

Management District, which regulates polluters in much of Southern

California.

" These are certainly intriguing findings, " Ospital said. However, he

cautioned that some changes observed by Kleinman, such as inflammation, can be

a

general reaction in bodily tissues and could have many causes.

In addition to the Riverside research, Kleinman took 16 mice and exposed

them to concentrated air in central Los Angeles near the Coliseum sports

stadium. Another 16 mice breathed purified air.

The pollution-exposed mice had brain inflammation that indicated the brain

cells had been injured, Kleinman said. Such inflammation is associated with

Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases but is not necessarily a precursor to such

illnesses, he said.

Stress on the Brain

Arezoo Campbell, a toxicologist and assistant professor at Western

University of Health Sciences in Pomona, said this and other research shows

that fine

particles put stress on brain tissue. It's not known if the stress will later

result in diseases, but if it does, it would most likely affect those who

are more genetically susceptible to certain diseases, he said.

In 2002, research by scientists with the University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill found that dogs raised in highly polluted Mexico City showed

neurological damage and brain lesions.

Scientists have long suspected that diesel soot and other forms of

fine-particle pollution find their way into the brain.

Ospital said the particles are so tiny that they may be able enter the

bloodstream through the lungs and then work their way through the walls of the

blood vessels that traverse brain tissue.

Another route may be the olfactory nerve in the nose, which is connected to

the brain, according to Kleinman's research paper.

Inland Research

Kleinman's Riverside-area work focused on the heart disease-fine particle

connection. The mice were housed in a trailer-laboratory in a citrus grove, and

some of them breathed air in which the pollution was concentrated to equal a

" bad summer day in Southern California, " he said.

The pollution-exposed group had a quicker build-up of plaque in their

arteries, restricting blood flow to the heart. Such blockages can trigger heart

attacks in people.

Those mice also had lower blood pressure and slower heart beats, an

unhealthy combination that reduces heart's ability to pump blood, Kleinman

said.

The finding bolstered a 2006 New York University study linking fine-particle

pollution to aggravated heart disease in mice that also had fatty diets.

" These results indicated that the current EPA (health) standard for ambient

particulate matter may not adequately protect public health, " Lung-Chi Chen,

author of the NYU study, wrote Tuesday in an e-mail.

Reach David Danelski at 951-368-9471 or _ddanelski_

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