What Fuels Your Road Rage?

Men behind the wheels are almost associated with the negative emotions of road rage too. However, have you ever considered what fuels this road rage? It has a health concern behind it.

Exposure to fumes from leaded and unleaded gasoline while refuelling cars could lead to increased aggressive behaviour. More time spent in belligerent postures and increased numbers of attacks stimulates this aggression. There comes the increased damage caused by free radicals and altered levels of neurotransmitters in the brain cortex region is more in comparison with the control or leaded gasoline groups.

Furthermore, inhalation of both fuels induced significant fluctuations in neurotransmitters in the hypothalamus, hippocampus and cerebellum. Heightened aggression may be yet another risk for the human population chronically exposed to urban air polluted by automobile smoke.

The Cairo University conducted this study. The expert based the research on rats divided into three groups with each leaded-gas fumes, unleaded-gas fumes or clean air. The study finds that rats exposed to either kind of fuel vapour became more aggressive as compared to the clean air group. The study was published in the open access journal BMC Physiology.