14 DAY TRIAL // A team of researchers was recently able to determine that exposure to exhaust plumes from diesel engines can lead to heart failure later on in life. The findings were made in a study of lab mice, which was published in the latest issue of the journal Particle and Fiber Toxicology.
Exposure to diesel is known to cause a higher incidence of heart attacks in adults, but scientists were not sure as to the exact effects that these exhaust fumes had following early life exposure, Environmental Science News reports.
After comparing a group of healthy mice to a group of rodents that had been exposed to diesel fumes, researchers with the School of Medicine at the University of Washington determined that members of the second group had a higher incidence of pulmonary congestion, myocardial fibrosis, systolic failure and cardiac hypertrophy than their counterparts in the first group.
The amount of diesel fumes the mice were exposed to – 300 micrograms per cubic meter of air – is identical to the one humans experience in the world's largest and most crowded cities. This “implies that adult cardiovascular disease may have more origins in developmental exposure to air pollution than is currently appreciated,” the authors write in the new paper.