Air Pollution Study birth cohort study. The NERC-HPA funded Traffic Pollution and Health in London project at King's College London is currently seeking to refine understanding of the health effects of traffic pollution. Ambient traffic-related air pollution was associated with decreased cognitive function in older men. Mortality from diesel soot exposure in 2001 was at least 14,400 out of the German population of 82 million, according to the official report 2352 of the Umweltbundesamt Berlin (Federal Environmental Agency of Germany). The study of nanoparticles and nanotoxicology is in its infancy, and health effects from nanoparticles produced by all types of diesel engines are still being uncovered. It is clear, that diesel health detriments of fine particle emissions are severe and pervasive. Although one study found no significant evidence that short-term exposure to diesel exhaust results in adverse extrapulmonary effects, effects that are correlated with an increase in cardiovascular disease, a 2011 study in The Lancet concluded that traffic exposure is the single most serious preventable trigger of heart attack in the general public, as the cause of 7.4% of all attacks. It is impossible to tell how much of this effect is due to the stress of being in traffic and how much is due to exposure to exhaust. Since the study of the detrimental health effects of nanoparticles (nanotoxicology) is still in its infancy, and the nature and extent of negative health impacts from diesel exhaust continues to be discovered, it remains controversial whether the public health impact of diesels is higher than that of petrol-fuelled vehicles. Variation with engine conditions The types and quantities of nanoparticles can vary according to operating temperatures and pressures, presence of an open flame, fundamental fuel type and fuel mixture, and even atmospheric mixtures. As such, the resulting types of nanoparticles from different engine technologies and even different fuels are not necessarily comparable. One study has shown that 95% of the volatile component of diesel nanoparticles is unburned lubricating oil. Long-term effects still need to be further clarified, as well as the effects on susceptible groups of people with cardiopulmonary diseases. Diesel engines can produce black soot (or more specifically diesel particulate matter) from their exhaust. The black smoke consists of carbon compounds that have not burned because of local low temperatures where the fuel is not fully atomized. These local low temperatures occur at the cylinder walls, and at the surface of