Cars emit a series of gases that increase environmental pollution and increase the risk of health problems, especially respiratory ones. A small study conducted by the University of Manitoba (Canada) has found that gas from diesel exhaust could be more dangerous and have worse effects on women than men.
The research, which is still preliminary, was carried out with a sample of 10 healthy non-smokers, and the tests consisted of each of them spending four hours breathing filtered air and four hours inhaling air contaminated with three different concentrations of gases. diesel: 20, 50 and 150 PM2.5 or micrograms of fine particles.
To get an idea of the pollution levels that this implies, the annual limit value of PM2.5currently set by the European Union is 25 PM2.5, although in many cities there are usually much higher peaks. One day after each of these tests, blood samples were taken from the participants in which the blood plasma was analyzed using a technology called liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Differences in 90 blood proteins between men and women
The results, which are going to be presented at the International Congress of the European Respiratory Society being held in Barcelona, showed that there were differences in the levels of 90 proteins in the blood of men and women participating in the study after being exposed to gas from the diesel exhaust pipes.
“Breathing diesel exhaust fumes creates inflammation in the lungs and has an impact on how the body treats respiratory infections”
Among these proteins were some that are related to the process of inflammation, blood coagulation, damage repair, the immune system and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, this corroborates that being exposed to air pollution could increase the risk of respiratory diseases, such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), especially in women.
According to the researchers, although more studies are needed on the subject, this finding could explain why health problems such as asthma are more common in women than in men. “We already know that there are sex differences in lung diseases such as asthma and respiratory infections.”
“Our previous research has shown that breathing diesel exhaust creates inflammation in the lungs and has an impact on how the body treats respiratory infections. In this study, we wanted to look for any effects on the blood and how these differ in women and men”, concludes Neeloffer Mookherjee, lead author of the study.
.
