Leads To Learning, Memory Problems
London: Air pollution caused by traffic emissions not only hampers your lungs, but can also impair the way your brain functions, two new studies have claimed.
In the first study, scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston have found that living in areas with high levels of traffic pollution can reduce people’s performance in cognitive tests.
People, aged over 50, who had lived in polluted areas had lower cognitive scores than those exposed to lower levels of pollution during their life time even after their results had been adjusted for social and educative status, it found.
The second study in mice by researchers at the Ohio State University in Columbus also found that fine airborne particulates that are typically emitted by diesel engines can lead to learning and memory problems by reducing the growth of neurons in the brain, the Daily Telegraph reported. The Harvard study examined the average lifetime exposure to traffic-related pollution and the cognitive test scores of 680 men aged between 51-years-old and 97-years-old.
It found that those living in areas that were exposed to twice as much black carbon as low pollution areas were 1.3 times more likely to have lower cognitive scores.
Dr Melinda Power, who led the study, said, “Our results suggest an adverse effect of traffic related air pollution on global cognitive function in older men. When we explored the potential for effect modification, our results suggest the effect of traffic-related pollution on cognition may be greater in smokers or obese individuals.”
“Although we looked at the effect in men, I believe the findings are applicable to women as well.”
In the second study in mice, the researchers found that exposure to fine particles of pollution known as PM2.5s caused increases in the levels of inflammatory molecules in the animals’ brains. PTI
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