PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

How studded winter tires may damage public health, as well as pavement

2011-01-06
(Press-News.org) Scientists are reporting new evidence on how studded tires — wintertime fixtures in some areas but banned in others for causing damage to pavement — may also damage the health of motorists and people living near highways. Studded tires have small metal protrusions from the rubber tread that improve traction on icy or snow-covered roads. Their study appears in ACS' Chemical Research in Toxicology, a monthly journal.

Anders Ljungman and colleagues note that studded tires grind away at the road surface, generating the kind of dust particles believed to contribute to heart and respiratory disease when inhaled into the lungs. Studded tires are winter mainstays in Finland, Norway, Sweden and other northern countries, but have been banned or restricted in others and in some states because they damage pavement. The scientists' past research found that road dust from studded tires causes biological changes in cells related to inflammation, a process underlying heart and respiratory diseases.

In the new research, the scientists pinpointed specific changes in proteins in cells related to the road dust exposure. Dust exposure resulted in significant increases in three proteins associated with increased inflammation and decreased levels of seven proteins, including some involved in fighting inflammation and maintaining normal metabolism. The results reveal important chemical markers in the body that could help scientists better understand the link between pavement dust and heart disease, the scientists suggest.

INFORMATION:

ARTICLE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Wear Particles from Studded Tires and Granite Pavement Induce Pro-inflammatory Alterations in Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages: A Proteomic Study"

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE
http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/tx100281f

CONTACT:
Anders Ljungman, Ph.D.
Linköping University
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Faculty of Health Sciences
Linköping, Sweden
Phone: 46-10-1031481
Email: anders.ljungman@liu.se

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

'Smart grid' would save energy, cut costs for US consumers

2011-01-06
Momentum is building for a new energy "smart grid" that would overhaul the U.S.'s 100-year-old electrical power network. The impact would be huge –– from installation of a new web of electrical transmission lines to smart meters to control home appliances. The meters would offer consumers discounted rates if they use electricity at off-peak hours. A key objective of the $1.5 trillion dollar plan is "time of use" electricity pricing that would increase the cost to consumers of energy at peak mid-day hours and lower it at others, according to an article in the current edition ...

EARTH -- OPEC and oil: The next 50 years

2011-01-06
Alexandria, VA – Over the past five decades, OPEC has earned a reputation for being a powerful cartel that controls the world's oil production and prices - but there are limits to OPEC's influence and wealth. In fact, many OPEC countries face grave problems, which are to some extent the result of their oil-income dependence. EARTH examines OPEC's past, current and future place in this world. Will OPEC continue to control the planet's oil for the next 50 years? Learn more about this eye-opening subject in February's featured article "OPEC and Oil: The Next 50 Years," and ...

Bacteria eyed for possible role in atherosclerosis

2011-01-06
Dr. Emil Kozarov and a team of researchers at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine have identified specific bacteria that may have a key role in vascular pathogenesis, specifically atherosclerosis, or what is commonly referred to as "hardening of the arteries" – the number one cause of death in the United States. Fully understanding the role of infections in cardiovascular diseases has been challenging because researchers have previously been unable to isolate live bacteria from atherosclerotic tissue. Using tissue specimens from the Department of Surgery ...

Malfunctioning gene associated with Lou Gehrig's disease leads to nerve-cell death in mice

Malfunctioning gene associated with Lou Gehrigs disease leads to nerve-cell death in mice
2011-01-06
PHILADELPHIA – Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) are characterized by protein clumps in brain and spinal-cord cells that include an RNA-binding protein called TDP-43. This protein is the major building block of the lesions formed by these clumps. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a team led by Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD, director of Penn's Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, describes the first direct evidence of how mutated TDP-43 can cause neurons to die. Although ...

Syracuse University team develops functionally graded shape memory polymers

2011-01-06
A team led by Patrick T. Mather, director of Syracuse Biomaterials Institute (SBI) and Milton and Ann Stevenson professor of biomedical and chemical engineering in Syracuse University's L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS), has succeeded in applying the concept of functionally graded materials (FGMs) to shape memory polymers (SMPs). SMPs are a class of "smart" materials that can switch between two shapes, from a fixed (temporary) shape to a predetermined permanent shape. Shape memory polymers function as actuators, by first forming a heated article ...

Widespread ancient ocean 'dead zones' challenged early life

Widespread ancient ocean dead zones challenged early life
2011-01-06
The oceans became oxygen-rich as they are today about 600 million years ago, during Earth's Late Ediacaran Period. Before that, most scientists believed until recently, the ancient oceans were relatively oxygen-poor for the preceding four billion years. Now biogeochemists at the University of California-Riverside (UCR) have found evidence that the oceans went back to being "anoxic," or oxygen-poor, around 499 million years ago, soon after the first appearance of animals on the planet. They remained anoxic for two to four million years. The researchers suggest that ...

Newly developed cloak hides underwater objects from sonar

Newly developed cloak hides underwater objects from sonar
2011-01-06
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In one University of Illinois lab, invisibility is a matter of now you hear it, now you don't. Led by mechanical science and engineering professor Nicholas Fang, Illinois researchers have demonstrated an acoustic cloak, a technology that renders underwater objects invisible to sonar and other ultrasound waves. "We are not talking about science fiction. We are talking about controlling sound waves by bending and twisting them in a designer space," said Fang, who also is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. "This ...

Globally sustainable fisheries possible with co-management

Globally sustainable fisheries possible with co-management
2011-01-06
The bulk of the world's fisheries--including the kind of small-scale, often non-industrialized fisheries that millions of people depend on for food--could be sustained using community-based co-management. This is the conclusion of a study reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature. "The majority of the world's fisheries are not--and never will be--managed by strong centralized governments with top-down rules and the means to enforce them," says Nicolas Gutiérrez, a University of Washington fisheries scientist and lead author of the Nature paper. "Our findings ...

Violence against mothers linked to 1.8 million female infant and child deaths in India

2011-01-06
Boston, MA -- The deaths of 1.8 million female infants and children in India over the past 20 years are related to domestic violence against their mothers, according to a new study led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). In their examination of over 158,000 births occurring between 1985 and 2005, the researchers found that husbands' violence against wives increased the risk of death among female children, but not male children, in both the first year and the first five years of life. "Being born a girl into a family in India in which your mother ...

Mayo Clinic determines lifetime risk of adult rheumatoid arthritis

2011-01-06
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have determined the lifetime risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis and six other autoimmune rheumatic diseases for both men and women. The findings appear online in Arthritis and Rheumatism. VIDEO ALERT: Additional audio and video resources, including excerpts from an interview with Cynthia Crowson describing the research, are available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog(http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2011/01/05/whats-your-risk-of-developing-rheumatoid-arthritis/) "We estimated the lifetime risk for rheumatic disease for both ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

U.S. uterine cancer incidence and mortality rates expected to significantly increase by 2050

Public take the lead in discovery of new exploding star

What are they vaping? Study reveals alarming surge in adolescent vaping of THC, CBD, and synthetic cannabinoids

ECMWF - delivering forecasts over 10 times faster and cutting energy usage by 1000

Brazilian neuroscientist reveals how viral infections transform the brain through microscopic detective work

Turning social fragmentation into action through discovering relatedness

Cheese may really be giving you nightmares, scientists find

Study reveals most common medical emergencies in schools

Breathable yet protective: Next-gen medical textiles with micro/nano networks

Frequency-engineered MXene supercapacitors enable efficient pulse charging in TENG–SC hybrid systems

Developed an AI-based classification system for facial pigmented lesions

Achieving 20% efficiency in halogen-free organic solar cells via isomeric additive-mediated sequential processing

New book Terraglossia reclaims language, Country and culture

The most effective diabetes drugs don't reach enough patients yet

Breast cancer risk in younger women may be influenced by hormone therapy

Strategies for staying smoke-free after rehab

Commentary questions the potential benefit of levothyroxine treatment of mild hypothyroidism during pregnancy

Study projects over 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if USAID defunding continues

New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children

Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer

It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections

From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine

Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023

No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults

NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders

Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds

University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant

Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research

Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma

[Press-News.org] How studded winter tires may damage public health, as well as pavement