Diesel exhaust feeds solid tumors.

• Position: Cancer

The link between diesel fume exposure and cancer lies in the ability of the exhaust to induce the growth of new blood vessels that serve as a food supply for solid tumors, according to scientists at Ohio Slate University, Columbus. "The message from our study is that exposure to diesel exhaust for just a short time period of two months could give even normal tissue the potential to develop a tumor," explains Qinghua Sun, assistant professor of environmental health sciences.

"We need to raise public awareness so people give more thought to how they drive and how they live so they can pursue ways to protect themselves and improve their health, and we still have a lot of work to do to improve diesel engines so they generate fewer particles and exhaust that can be released into the ambient air."

The researchers found that three types of blood vessel development occurred after exposure to the diesel exhaust: angiogenesis, the generation of new capillaries; arteriogenesis, the maturation of restarted growth of existing vessels; and vasculogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. All of these processes are associated with tumor growth, but unprogrammed angiogenesis in particular can wreak havoc in the human body, Sun indicates. "Whenever you talk about a solid tumor, angiogenesis is one of the...