Epidemiological studies show that families living close to busy roadways have a higher incidence of many diseases, including neurological ones such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and Alzheimer’s Disease. Why is this? One hypothesis is that vehicle emissions inhaled by the residents are the cause, but we also know that families that live close to busy roadways are also of lower socio-economic status resulting in differences in diet and generally a higher level of stress.

To separate the air pollution factors from the socio-economic ones, we established a laboratory animal exposure facility at a busy traffic tunnel near Oakland California. Rats in the facility breathe air from the tunnel or clean air so we can compare the health impacts. The rats exposed to tunnel air have particles in their hippocampus, show behavioral changes indicative of Alzheimer’s, and demonstrate other pathological indicators despite the PM2.5 concentrations being lower than the US Environmental Protection Agency National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

The talk will present data from these experiments to date.