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【bio-news】公路尾气与儿童健康问题有关
Road fumes linked to kids' health problems
Development of lungs one issue cited in big U.S. study
Children living within 500 metres of major roadways have a much greater chance of lifelong and potentially deadly lung or heart problems, according to a landmark California study.
A team of researchers in Southern California led by W. James Gauderman, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California (USC), has followed 3,600 children in a dozen communities as far back as 1993 as part of the world's largest and longest study of its kind.
"The main thing is above and beyond regional types of pollution, we have determined for those living close to roadways it causes significant health issues for them -- especially for children," Gauderman told The Star.
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"It really hinders their lung development."
The researchers, largely from USC's Keck School of Medicine, tracked lung development of the children for eight years from Grade 4 through Grade 12.
They compared those living within 500 metres of major roads and found a seven per cent reduction in lung function by age 18, compared to others at least 1,500 metres away.
Their findings will be published in The Lancet medical journal. It's the latest in a string of studies pointing at the potentially deadly link between diesel emissions and human health.
"You might not see anything happen until later in life when they come up with a disease," Gauderman said.
"But there is a lot of evidence before us specifically pointing to chronic effects on children."
And most startling is the damage never reverses itself -- even long after those affected may have moved far away from the polluted roadways, Gauderman said.
Children involved in the study who are now in their 20s have the same rate of damage as they did at 18, he said.
"Your lung growth is pretty much complete at 18," Gauderman said. "These kids now in their 20s, there is no sign of improvement in their lung function."
Diesel emissions are among the worst pollution of any kind because they contain small particulates which can travel the deepest into the lungs and cause the most damage, he said. Harm from vehicle pollutants, especially diesel, can also be found in the bloodstream and brain, he said.
Diesel emissions contain "significantly more fine particles than environmental pollution," Gauderman said
"That makes us worry more about diesel than other vehicles -- particularly if there are a significant number (of trucks) passing by a certain point," he said.
Recent government attempts in both the U.S. and Canada to improve diesel engine and fuel technologies are a step in the right direction, but much of that is going to be offset by the skyrocketing numbers of trucks on the road, he said.
If increasing efforts to improve those technologies slow or are abandoned,"there are going to be that much more (deadly emissions) in the air," Gauderman said.
While there may not be much that can be done to curb the amount of vehicles and trucks on the road, the numbers should force changes around the world in places where governments allow housing and schools to be built, Gauderman said.
"Our statistics have determined health is something that must be taken into account," he said. "They tend to build schools and homes where there is cheap land. Well, where is there cheap land? Next to freeways," he said.
Gauderman said pending appropriate funding, the study will continue until at least until 2012. 本人已认领该文编译，48小时后若未提交译文，请其他战友自由认领。 http://www.dxy.cn/bbs/post/view?bid=116&id=8159469&sty=3&keywords=%B9%AB%C2%B7 [标签:content1][标签:content2]
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-02-25 17:12
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