- 9 Jan 2020,
- Updated: 8 Jan 2020,
The traffic-slowing ramps around schools and care homes also put the most vulnerable at risk.
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Researchers warn that dust from brake pads may be as harmful to health as diesel exhaust fumes.
Braking releases toxic metal particles into the air and hitting a bump dislodges even more.
These are breathed in — potentially weakening lungs’ ability to fight infection and making coughs worse.
Scientists from King’s College London tested the impact of brake dust and diesel fumes on immune cells called macrophages.
Both reduced the cells’ ability to destroy bacteria and raised their production of a molecule linked to inflammation.
Researcher Dr Liza Selley said: "Diesel fumes and brake dust appear to be as bad as each other in terms of toxicity in macrophages.
"Macrophages protect the lung from microbes and infections and regulate inflammation, but we found that when they're exposed to brake dust they can no longer take up bacteria.
"Worryingly, this means that brake dust could be contributing to what I call 'London throat' - the constant froggy feeling and string of coughs and colds that city dwellers endure - and more serious infections like pneumonia or bronchitis which we already know to be influenced by diesel exhaust exposure."
The research was funded by the Medical Research Council and is published in the journal Metallomics.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10702370/speed-bumps-are-bad-for-our-health-and-fuel-air-pollution-study-warns/
