Cutting-edge research suggests that diesel exhaust particles play a role in some of humanity’s most terrifying and mysterious illnesses: degenerative brain diseases.
“While coarse pollution particles seldom make it past our upper lungs, fine and ultrafine particles can travel from our nostrils along neural pathways directly into our brains.
Once there, they can wreak a special havoc that appears to kick off or accelerate the downward spiral of degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
While much of the research is still preliminary, the findings so far are compelling.
Autopsies of the brains of people who lived in highly contaminated areas have turned up traces of pollution and corresponding brain trauma.
And among those still living, epidemiologists have recorded elevated rates of brain disease and accelerated mental decline.”
— MotherJones.com
