The Ailing Environment Car Exhaust - Health Effects

1. The Ailing EnvironmentCar Exhaust - Health Effects Christine Walser Environment and Human Health

2. Pathogens in car exhaust include: • -Carbon Monoxide • -Nitrogen Dioxide • -Sulphur Dioxide • -Particles such as PM-10 • -Benzene • -Formaldehyde • -Polycyclic hydrocarbons

3. Background Information A conference on "Air Pollution: Impacts on Body Organs and Systems" was held in Washington D.C. by the National Association of Physicians for the Environment on November 18, 1994. Air pollution can enter the human bloodstream through the nose, mouth, skin, and the digestive tract. Include harmful chemicals such as benzene, lead, carbon monoxide, volatile nitrites, pesticides and herbicides. Produce harmful effects on the blood, bone marrow, spleen and lymph nodes. The blood system is vulnerable to environmental poisoning due to the process when new blood cells enter the circulation as mature cells are lost.

4. The toxic chemicals in environmental air pollution causes the immune system to activate leukocytes and macrophages that produce tissue damage, including the cells that line human blood vessels • Repetitive exposure to toxic chemicals makes it difficult for the lining cells to release endothelial-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) which relaxes the smooth muscle in blood vessel walls. Interference of EDRF causes systemic hypertension • Leukocytes on the endothelium’s surface can promote atherosclerotic disease • These combined effects lead to hypertension and ischemic heart disease.

5. Air pollutant can enter the respiratory tract as a volatile gas (ozone, benzene), liquid droplets (sulfuric acid, nitrogen dioxide), particulate matter (components of diesel exhaust, aromatic hydrocarbons). • When these pollutant enter the immune system, it can cause responses such as overactive immune responses or immunosuppression. • Disorders caused by pollutants in the respiratory system: -immunosuppression: exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -hypersensitivity reactions- exposure to toluene diisocyanate or other chemicals

6. Solution • Air pollution prevention is the best solution for immediate reduction of harmful effects of environmental toxins. • Public support is necessary to reduce environmental air pollution.

7. Governments can encourage the reduction of vehicular use by: • Promoting Voluntary abstention • Increased Public Transit • Separate commercial and private traffic to increase efficient use of roads • Stop building car-oriented roads and highways • Replace 30% of the existing roads designed for cars with a variety of transportation options • In cities, build more walking paths, bicycle routes and paths for small electric vehicles

8. Reduce commuting - link residence and business activities by rezoning and rebuilding cities. • Reward car-pools and car-sharing plans * Redefine road use by defining access privileges - no longer a right • Road Tolls and increased gasoline and registration taxes • Base car license fees on fuel consumption in the previous year. Use exponential fee rate increase for high fuel consumption individuals. • Provide generous development grants and tax incentives for all non-polluting transportation alternatives.

9. Carbon Monoxide • Air pollution can harm organs of the body, an example would be carbon monoxide • Carbon monoxide binds to the hemoglobin and does not allow oxygen to be released to the tissues. • Carbon monoxide poisoning causes suffocation • Carbon monoxide increases the severity of cardiovascular disease in humans

10. Example of a patient with a chemical exposure: • The patient worked in a vehicle repair shop with inadequate ventilation making him vulnerable to concentrations of exhaust products. • He was exposed to diesel and gasoline engine exhaust, including pathogens such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, suspended particles, benzene, polycyclic hydrocarbons, and lead. • He developed a chronic illness with signs of chronic fatigue, recurrent flu-like illness, limited exertional tolerance, vertigo, dyspepsia with epigastric pain, chest pain, shortness of breath, cognitive dysfunction, anxiety • He had trouble concentrating and experienced memory loss. Studies have also shown that prolonged exposure to exhaust gases induce allergy symptoms or hypersensitivity, and lead to immune and endocrine abnormalities.

11. Lead • Lead is one of the hundreds of neurotoxic air pollutants • Other heavy metals, pesticides, and organic solvents also cause neurobehavioral dysfunction: changes in mood, cognition and behavior. Neurobehavior effects can contribute to serious psychiatric problems. • Studies have shown that increased levels of air pollutants were accompanied by increase psychiatric emergency calls and hospital admissions, behavior changes, and lessened sense of well-being. • Fifteen years ago, blood lead concentrations in children under 30 to 40 micrograms per deciliter were not considered problematic. Research has shown that 10 to 15 micrograms per deciliter causes changes in cognitive function.

12. Children are more sensitive to lead’s CNS effects but adults also experience deficits in learning and memory. • Targets the central nervous system • A study done in Germany showed that there was a relation between age-related decline in bone lead concentrations with advancing age. • Lead can harm normal red blood cell formation by inhibiting important enzymes. Lead damages red blood cell membranes and shortens the survival of each cell due to the interference of cell metabolism. These effects result in clinical anemia (A pathological deficiency in the oxygen-carrying component of the blood).

13. Benzene • Benzene has been found in 337 of 1177 National Priorities List hazardous waste sites. • determined to be carcinogenic by the US Department of Health and Human Services • produced in petroleum refining • used as solvents • used as materials to produce industrial products and pesticides • environmental sources of benzene: found in gasoline, cigarette smoke, vehicle exhaust fumes, underground storage that leak, wastewater from industries that use benzene, chemical spills, groundwater next to landfills containing benzene, and food products that contain benzene naturally.

14. exposure to benzene is related to the development of leukemia and lymphoma • suppresses bone marrow, impairs blood cell maturation and marrow loss • exposure can lead to the reduction of the number of blood cells, or cause total bone marrow loss • harmful to the immune system, increasing the chance for infections and lowering the body’s defense against tumors • long-term exposure result in severe anemia and internal bleeding • exposure to high levels of benzene after brief oral or inhalation can lead to death • main effects are drowsiness, dizziness and headaches, but disappear after exposure stops.

15. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons • PAHs are a group of chemicals formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil and gas, garbage, or other organic substances. • used in medicines, and to make dyes, plastics, and pesticides • found in the air, water and soil • colorless, white, or pale yellow-green solids • occur in air attached to dust particles, or in soil or sediment as solids • found in substances such as crude oil, coal, coal tar pitch, creosote, road and roofing tar

16. PAHs attached to dust and other particles in the air originate from vehicle exhausts, asphalt roads, coal, coal tar, wildfires, agricultural burning and hazardous waste sites. • can be exposed to PAHs in soil near where coal, wood, gasoline have been burned, or from soil near waste sites such as former manufactured gas sites and wood-preserving facilities. • enter the body through the lungs

17. stored in the kidneys, liver, fat, spleen, adrenal glands and ovaries but are excreted within a few days in the feces and urine • PAHs may be carcinogens • laboratory animals developed tumors • humans who are exposed by breathing or skin contact can develop cancer • PAHs change into chemicals that can attach to substances within the body which can be measured in body tissues or blood after exposure