Air Pollution Produces Genetic Mutations - Science

"Six years ago Canadian scientists reported that sea gulls living near steel mills on the Great Lakes passed genetic mutations to their offspring at a much higher rate than did gulls in rural areas. The source of the mutations was not known at the time, but the prime suspect was air pollution because the gulls nearest the steel mills had the most mutations.

The researchers now report, in a study of mice, that air pollution almost certainly caused genetic mutations in animals and these mutations were inherited by the next generation. The mice with the mutations breathed air near a major highway and two steel mills in Ontario.

It is not yet known what effects, if any, the mutations have on the health of the mice, and more research needs to be done before the findings can be extended to humans. Still, the new findings suggest that genetic changes caused by pollution can be inherited. The researchers report today in Science that the mutations were caused by airborne particles in emissions from steel plants or automobiles.

“This is a remarkable and interesting observation, and it raises new concerns about the consequences of exposure to airborne pollutants,” says Jonathan Samet of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who wrote an accompanying commentary."

EDIT

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/05/13/airpollution.php

...of coal during the industrial revolution throughout the 19th century and right up to the 1940's of the 20th century cause such problems? They called it fly-ash and it was the main cause of numerous illnesses and birth defects. Why are we still allowing the neo-cons, freepers and industrial polluters legitimacy in their claims that these don't create problems for living beings around the world?