Dutch researchers recently suggested that an hour sniffing exhaust fumes may not only give you headache, but also it may alter your brain function and stability. Scientists have known nanoparticles (A nanoparticle or nanopowder or nanocluster or nanocrystal) is a microscopic particle with at least one dimension less than 100 nm), reach the brain when inhaled, but this is the first time they have been shown to affect how we process information.

A researcher team at Zuyd University in the Netherland, convinced 10 people to spend an hour in a room filled either with clean air or exhaust from a diesel engine. They connected these people who participated in the research with electroencephalograph (EEG), a device that records the electrical signals of the brain. They were monitored during the period of exposure and for an hour after they left the room.

About after 30 mintues being in the room, the brain of the people who were in the exhaust room displayed a stress respond in the EEG machine and the stress actually continue even after they went out of the room.  “We can only speculate what these effects may mean for the chronic exposure to air pollution encountered in busy cities where the levels of such soot particles can be very high,” said lead researcher Paul Borm. He also said “It is conceivable that the long-term effects of exposure to traffic nanoparticles may interfere with normal brain function and information processing. Further studies are necessary to explore this effect.”