What’s the News: Scientists have for the first time directly linked freeway vehicle emissions with brain damage. Scientists used a new technique that involved trapping airborne toxins along Los Angeles’ 110 Freeway, freezing them in water, and exposing lab mice to the toxins. “As a society, we need to figure out ways to minimize the level of the very, very nasty particulates we are dumping into the air we breathe,” University of Southern California gerontology researcher Todd Morgan told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s having terrible consequences.”How the Heck:

The researchers used a particle sampler to collect “fresh ambient particulate matter” along the CA-110 Freeway near Los Angeles City for 30 days. After gathering grime on filters, they then soaked the filters in water for 30 minutes before freezing the water-toxin cocktail.
Frozen pollutants only remain chemically stable for around 3 months, so after collecting freeway toxins, the scientists brought the toxic ice cubed back to their lab soon after. They thawed the ice and released the toxins into the air breathed by their lab mice, exposing them to the fumes for a total of 150 hours ...