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Pollution 'could kill off human race'

IAN JOHNSTON SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT

POLLUTION is far more damaging to humans than originally thought and is causing genetic mutations which could eventually wipe us from the face of the planet, according to a leading scientist.

Dr Laurence Loewe, of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology at Edinburgh University, said researchers had under-estimated the threat from small but damaging mutations of DNA caused by pollutants such as exhaust fumes and chemicals.

Although these might not immediately cause disease, as they build up over generations they can reach the point within a population where more and more people become infertile and, ultimately, the group dies out.

Most experts had believed small mutations were irrelevant as they did not cause disease.

But, according to a mathematical model of the way they affect populations, there is a real danger from the accumulation of such defects, and this could already be affecting some endangered species.

Dr Loewe said: "Previously, we thought all these small mutations did not matter. The medical community would say, 'If it doesn't add up to a disease, we won't care'.

"The evolutionary community would say, 'Deleterious mutations are going to be removed by selection, so we don't care'.

"But if you keep accumulating more and more [damaging mutations], some years down the line, the overall quality is so much worse."

Humanity cannot rely on natural selection to deal with minor alterations to DNA.

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