Chemistry
Current Event 7
Ned McCann
4-14-15

Citation: Oosthoek, Sharon. "Air Pollution Can Mess with Our DNA." Study for Science. N.p., 22 Jan. 2015. Web. <https://student.societyforscience.org/article/air-pollution-can-mess-our-dna>.

       The article I read, Air Pollution can mess with our DNA,  written by Sharon Oosthoek was a great article. The article begins with alarming facts about the dangers of breathing in gas from pollution is bad for human beings. For example, breathing diesel fumes can trigger another toxic change. It can inappropriately turn some genes on, while turning others off. The article explains that Genes can be controlled by a type of chemical switch, known as a methyl group. These are caused by chemical reactions affecting the components of DNA. The article states that air pollutants may inappropriately step in and add methyl groups to DNA. Or they might remove methyl groups. The problem is that environmental changes can hijack genes, changing when or what they instruct cells to do. A new study found, says thatbreathing diesel fumes for just two hours can have such an epigenetic effect (the study of methylation’s role in gene action). 16 students at the University of British Columbia were put into an enclosed room for 2 hours, half breathing in clean air, the other polluted air. The article states, "Methyl groups changed at about 2,800 different points on the DNA of people who breathed in diesel fumes. Those changes affected about 400 genes. No similar changes were seen among people breathing the clean air." The article ends with the future of this problem.
       The study done in this article was very interesting. This is a very popular question in the world today about how polluted air is affecting our bodies. The study is very important because it set up other questions to be answered, such as, "What are the cumulative effects for someone who breathes in diesel fumes regularly?" Also many great facts were presented. Overall the new study is important because it shows that human DNA can be affected by short-term exposure to air pollution. 
       This was a very well written article. It posed a very great question that is frequently asked in the world today. The article was set up well by commonly used terms in the study such as epigenetic and methyl group in order to get a better understanding of the article. Also the experiments written about in the article were able to answer the main question at hand, how is air pollution affecting our bodies. Otherwise the article uses great grammar and I really enjoyed reading Sharon Oosthoek article.