By Robert Preidt
HealthDay reporter
FRIDAY, Aug 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Pollution has long been known to damage your heart and lungs, but new research has shown it’s harmful to your brain as well.
A long-term study by a team from Seattle linked exposure to higher levels of particulate matter in the air with an increased risk of dementia.
“We found that a 1 microgram increase per cubic meter of exposure corresponded to a 16% higher risk of all-cause dementia,” said lead author Rachel Shaffer. “There was a similar association for Alzheimer’s-type dementia.”
Shaffer was a PhD student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington.
She and her colleagues analyzed data from more than 4,000 residents of the Seattle area who participated in the Adult Changes in Thought study conducted by the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in collaboration with the university.
Since the study began in 1994, more than 1,000 participants have been diagnosed with dementia.
A modest increase in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on average over a decade in certain neighborhoods was associated with a higher risk of dementia for residents, according to results published Aug. 4 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
To put the difference into perspective, the busy Pike Street Market in downtown Seattle and the residential areas around Discovery Park, the city’s largest natural park, had a difference in PM2.5 pollution of about 1 microgram per cubic meter in 2019. said Schaffer.
“We know dementia develops over a long period of time,” she said in a university press release. “It takes years – even decades – for these pathologies to develop in the brain, so we had to look at the exposures that covered that lengthy period.”
Air pollution is considered to be one of the most important potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia.
The study complements a number of research suggesting that air pollution can damage the brain and that reducing people’s exposure to dirty air could help lower dementia rates, the authors said.
“How we understood the health role of air pollution evolved from the assumption that it was initially limited to respiratory problems, then that it also has cardiovascular effects, and now there is evidence of its effects on the brain,” said senior author Lianne Sheppard, professor in the Faculties of Environmental and Occupational Medicine and Biostatistics at UW.
Shaffer noted that one way individuals can reduce their risk is common in the COVID-19 era: wearing a mask.
“But it’s not fair to put the burden on individuals alone,” added Shaffer. “These data can support further policy action at local and national levels to control sources of fine particulate air pollution.”
More information
The US National Institute on Aging has more about dementia.
SOURCE: University of Washington, press release, August 2, 2021
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