Traffic
Researchers performed an analysis of records from 90,000 women in the Nurses Health Study and utilized unique software to measure the distance between each of the woman’s homes and the nearest major roadways. The results of the study showed that women who lived within 165 feet of interstates or primary, multi-lane roads had a greater than 30 percent increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to those who lived more that 650 feet from a major roadway. Women who lived within 165 feet of the largest roadways had a 63 percent higher risk.
“Even after accounting for the effects of age, race, sex, socioeconomic status and cigarette smoking, the increased risk for women located near major roads remained substantially higher,” Jaime Hart, a research fellow in the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said in a hospital news release.
According to the researchers, genetic factors are believed to account for less than 50 percent of RA risk, and that environmental factors such as cigarette smoke may increase the risk of developing RA.
“This, coupled with prior research that suggests air pollution from traffic can cause systemic inflammation, prompted us to study whether there was a direct relationship between air pollution and the risk of RA,” Hart said.
Additional research is necessary to determine the exact effect that specific, measured levels of pollution have on the risk of developing the condition.
The study was published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
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Originally posted 2009-04-22 15:26:11. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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