Particulate air pollution and inheritable mutations in mice: Possible health effects?

Extract: In a recent study we showed that the particulate fraction of air pollution was capable of increasing the rate at which DNA changes were passed to the next generation (germline mutations) in mice. Here we briefly describe the research that brought us to this experiment, followed by a description of the recent study and its implications. Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) are fish-eating water birds that breed throughout the Laurentian …