Asthma Linked To Soot From Diesel Trucks In Bronx

More evidence that pollution is not only a broad environmental threat, but an acute danger to our health. 

More from NYU (via ScienceDirect)

Soot particles spewing from the exhaust of diesel
trucks constitute a major contributor to the alarmingly high rates of
asthma symptoms among school-aged children in the South Bronx,
according to the results of a five-year study by researchers at New
York University's School of Medicine and Robert F. Wagner Graduate
School of Public Service.

Over the course of the study, asthma symptoms,
particularly wheezing, doubled among elementary school children on high
traffic days, as large numbers attend schools in close proximity to
busy truck routes because of past land-use decisions.

The South
Bronx has among the highest incidences of asthma hospital admissions in
New York City, and a recent city survey of asthma in the South Bronx's
Hunts Point district found an asthma prevalence rate in elementary
school of 21 percent to 23 percent. The South Bronx is surrounded by
several major highways, including Interstates 95, 87, 278 and 895. At
Hunts Point Market alone, some 12,000 trucks roll in and out daily.