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UC Berkeley researchers have stepped into the debate over whether gasoline-fueled cars or large diesel trucks contribute more to secondary organic aerosol (SOA), a major component of smog. A new study finds that diesel exhaust contributes 15 times more than gas emissions per liter of fuel burned.
Tag: air pollution
Study links air pollution to low birthweight babies
February 6, 2013:
Pregnant women exposed to poor air quality are more likely to give birth to low birthweight babies, according to a study published today and described in the San Francisco Chronicle. UC Berkeley researchers and study co-authors Rachel Morello-Frosch and Bill Jesdale analyzed 1.7 million of the 3 million births in the study.
There’s something in the California air
September 7, 2011:
UC scientists built and worked in towers — some as tall as 1,500 feet — as part of the largest single atmospheric research effort in the state. The data they’ve collected will guide policymakers dealing with air pollution.
Mercury levels have risen in Pacific albatross over last century
April 19, 2011:
While at Harvard and now UC Berkeley, graduate student Anh-Thu Elaine Vo analyzed museum specimens of the black-footed albatross to see if she could track historical levels of methylmercury, a toxic chemical produced by humans. She showed that the bird’s feathers contain levels consistent with the global increase in mercury emissions since 1880.
Air pollution alters immune function, worsens asthma symptoms
October 5, 2010:
Exposure to dirty air is linked to decreased function of a gene that appears to increase the severity of asthma in children, according to a joint study by researchers at Stanford University and UC Berkeley. While air pollution is known to be a source of immediate inflammation, this new study provides one of the first pieces of direct evidence that explains how some ambient air pollutants could have long-term effects.
