Ship engine emissions adversely affect macrophages

Ship emissions adversely affect the health of inhabitants of coastal regions. This was the main finding of a study on the influence of ship engine emissions on macrophages in the lungs conducted by scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University of Rostock in cooperation with colleagues of the University of Luxembourg, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Eastern Finland, which has now been published in the journal PLOS ONE. Since macrophages also play a key role in lung diseases such as COPD, the study is important for understanding the health risks of ship exhausts.