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[quote=Anonymous]Key points:

Ultrafine particles are less than 100 nanometers in diameter — one one-thousandth the width of a human hair — and their impact on health is only beginning to be studied. Ultrafines aren’t specifically regulated by any state or federal air quality standards.

Such particles are found in both vehicle and plane emissions. In fact, the UW researchers observed a higher concentration of ultrafines by roadways than by the airport.

But for the first time, researchers found a crucial difference in the type of ultrafines emitted by cars and trucks versus jet planes.

A higher proportion of the ultrafine particles (UFPs) in jet emissions are so small they can penetrate the central nervous system when inhaled, the report said.

Communities under flight paths are exposed to those “ultra-ultrafines” when planes take off and land, researchers found.

ultrafine particles tend to agglomerate as they travel through the air — they stick together and become larger particles, which aren’t able to pass from the airways into the bloodstream. That’s typically what happens near busy roads.

But the super-small particles emitted by airplanes are forced directly downward by air currents and wing vortexes so rapidly that they haven’t agglomerated by the time they reach the ground

“The concern is that these very small particles may react differently within the body,” Austin said. “They may cross tissue barriers that larger particles can’t cross.”

There’s another reason for extra concern about ultra-ultrafine particles from plane emissions, the study said. People tend to spend a relatively small part of their day on the road — but people who live near airports are potentially exposed to the pollutants throughout the day and night.

“In terms of their ultrafine exposure, it’s like people under that flight path are standing in the roadway,” said Dr. Joel Kaufman, a University of Washington epidemiologist unaffiliated with the airport study.

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