Chris Carlsten, MD MPH is an Associate Professor at the
University of British Columbia, where he holds the endowed Chair
in Occupational and Environmental Lung Disease. He is also the
director of the Occupational Lung Disease Clinic at Vancouver
General Hospital's Lung Centre. His latest findings on the
effects of diesel exhaust and other pollution on asthma have the
potential to influence public policies on pollution. Sign up for
our newsletter Docs Talk: Your lab has been studying the effects
of air pollution on human lungs. Tell us a bit about what you've
found so far. Dr. Carlsten: We wanted to know why different
people respond differently to air pollution, even within the
same geographical area. Focused specifically on the lungs, we
have followed a large group of people—both children and
adults—and conducted observational and experimental studies to
see how they react to air pollution, specifically diesel
exhaust. There are, in fact, several reasons behind the
variation in response to air pollution, incl