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UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

vancouversun.com

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Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#11

Post by ekianjo »

unlinked_dll wrote: post #5
ekianjo wrote: post #4

> Living near a major road or highway was associated with a 14-per-cent risk for dementia, and seven per cent for Parkinson’s disease. I love how the article completely misses the important data point: what are the actual risks for other categories not living next to highways? Without this information, an "increased risk" is meaningless speculation.

I'm guessing that's just ambiguous grammar. "associated with a 14% risk for dementia" as in "14 percent higher than expected." I say that because the risk of dementia is a lot higher than 14%.

dementia risk is a function of age. you dont have many people with dementia in their 20s.

Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#12

Post by Brakenshire »

Anyone living near a busy road is swimming in particulate matter on the micrometre and nanometre scale, and particles on that scale bypass the normal defences, get into the blood stream and saturate the body. Small particles can even move down nerves, it’s really not surprising that long term exposure causes neurological problems.

Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#13

Post by sandworm101 »

Brakenshire wrote: post #12

Anyone living near a busy road is swimming in particulate matter on the micrometre and nanometre scale, and particles on that scale bypass the normal defences, get into the blood stream and saturate the body. Small particles can even move down nerves, it’s really not surprising that long term exposure causes neurological problems.

And what many overlook is many of these particles have nothing to do with emissions. Brake pads and tires turn to dust. So too bits of the road surface are slowly converted to fine particulates. Converting everyone to autodrive teslas powered by fusion reactors wont stop rubber from meeting asphalt.

(Switching to manual transmissions would probably reduce the brake dust. Id like to see if european roads suffer as much. Between automatic transmissions, weight, and some traction control schemes, NA cars chew through brake pads.)

Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#14

Post by cs702 »

Direct link to study: https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-...

The researchers found the link between living near highways and future neurological disorders to be independent of income, education, ethnicity, comorbidity, and coexisting medical conditions associated with future neurological disorders (traumatic brain injury, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, and arrhythmia).

Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#15

Post by mrob »

sandworm101 wrote: post #13
Brakenshire wrote: post #12

Anyone living near a busy road is swimming in particulate matter on the micrometre and nanometre scale, and particles on that scale bypass the normal defences, get into the blood stream and saturate the body. Small particles can even move down nerves, it’s really not surprising that long term exposure causes neurological problems.

And what many overlook is many of these particles have nothing to do with emissions. Brake pads and tires turn to dust. So too bits of the road surface are slowly converted to fine particulates. Converting everyone to autodrive teslas powered by fusion reactors wont stop rubber from meeting asphalt. (Switching to manual transmissions would probably reduce the brake dust. Id like to see if european roads suffer as muc…

Switching to electric vehicles would reduce brake dust even more, because they use regenerative breaking to avoid using the break pads when possible.

Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#16

Post by murkt »

mrob wrote: post #15
sandworm101 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what many overlook is many of these particles have nothing to do with emissions. Brake pads and tires turn to dust. So too bits of the road surface are slowly converted to fine particulates. Converting everyone to autodrive teslas powered by fusion reactors wont stop rubber from meeting asphalt. (Switching to manual transmissions would probably reduce the brake dust. Id like to see if european roads suffer as muc…

Switching to electric vehicles would reduce brake dust even more, because they use regenerative breaking to avoid using the break pads when possible.

Additionally, roads can be designed in a way that calms vehicle movement instead of accelerate-brake cycle. For example, narrower roads with curves instead of wide straight roads with speed bumps near pedestrian crossings.

Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#17

Post by Scoundreller »

mrob wrote: post #15
sandworm101 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what many overlook is many of these particles have nothing to do with emissions. Brake pads and tires turn to dust. So too bits of the road surface are slowly converted to fine particulates. Converting everyone to autodrive teslas powered by fusion reactors wont stop rubber from meeting asphalt. (Switching to manual transmissions would probably reduce the brake dust. Id like to see if european roads suffer as muc…

Switching to electric vehicles would reduce brake dust even more, because they use regenerative breaking to avoid using the break pads when possible.

At least newer automatics finally do engine braking as well.

Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#18

Post by scythe »

sandworm101 wrote: post #13
Brakenshire wrote: post #12

Anyone living near a busy road is swimming in particulate matter on the micrometre and nanometre scale, and particles on that scale bypass the normal defences, get into the blood stream and saturate the body. Small particles can even move down nerves, it’s really not surprising that long term exposure causes neurological problems.

And what many overlook is many of these particles have nothing to do with emissions. Brake pads and tires turn to dust. So too bits of the road surface are slowly converted to fine particulates. Converting everyone to autodrive teslas powered by fusion reactors wont stop rubber from meeting asphalt. (Switching to manual transmissions would probably reduce the brake dust. Id like to see if european roads suffer as muc…

From slide 17 here you can see that the switch from fuelled to electric vehicles is expected to decrease particulates by 60-80% from 2000 to 2040:

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents...

This doesn’t seem like a trivial improvement. Particulates are not the only toxic component of exhaust either; electric cars should produce no NOx, CO or O3 which is a big improvement. It’s also worth noting that brake wear particulates haven’t been a target because historically exhaust-related emissions were so much larger.

If we haven’t really tried to fix it, who’s to say we can’t?

Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#19

Post by Spooky23 »

Brakenshire wrote: post #12

Anyone living near a busy road is swimming in particulate matter on the micrometre and nanometre scale, and particles on that scale bypass the normal defences, get into the blood stream and saturate the body. Small particles can even move down nerves, it’s really not surprising that long term exposure causes neurological problems.

I live in a side street about 100 yards from a major avenue in my city. You can see on our front porch the impact of particulates... it’s covered in gross sticky dust once we do our spring cleaning.

Re: UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

#20

Post by KallDrexx »

Brakenshire wrote: post #12

Anyone living near a busy road is swimming in particulate matter on the micrometre and nanometre scale, and particles on that scale bypass the normal defences, get into the blood stream and saturate the body. Small particles can even move down nerves, it’s really not surprising that long term exposure causes neurological problems.

I'm curious how different living next to a highway is to living in a dense urban city though (like NYC) and if it's different why? In either case you have a lot of car traffic (probably closer to your place of residence than people that live close to a highway) Not to mention if you live in a dense urban city then you will spend more time walking directly next to traffic.
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