Studies show diesel smog increases chances of deadly blood clots.
By Ewen Callaway
Study after study has shown a connection between smoggy days and an increase in deaths. Now two experiments, one on mice and the other in men, clarify why. Diesel fumes, they find, encourage blood clots that can bring on heart attacks and strokes.
The study in people helps to prove the correlation between heart problems and a city's poor air quality and hints at the role of clotting in this process. And the work in mice exposed to smog suggests that the immune system kick-starts the process.