![]() And it’s sad, as a society, that that has to be the case.” “It’s another penalty they have to pay, risk not only for their lungs, not only increased cancer risk or heart risks for heart problems, but mental problems as well. “It is devastating to think that it’s, once again, another penalty that’s being paid by people who live in areas with poor air,” El-Hasan said. He called for the agency to “get very aggressive” on reducing particulate matter with new guidelines that account for the dementia risks laid out in this new report. The Harvard study is an “alarm” the EPA should pay attention to, said Afif El-Hasan, a pediatrician and volunteer spokesperson for the American Lung Association who was not involved with the new research. The Environmental Protection Agency places the limit at 12 micrograms per cubic meter, and the European Union puts the threshold at a comparatively lax 25 micrograms. That even small increases can raise dementia risks suggests that governments need to revamp their rules. “You know, that could easily be the difference between being in Boston versus a rural part of Massachusetts.” ![]() ![]() “Two micrograms per cubic meter is not that much,” said Marc Weisskopf, the lead author of the study and a professor of environmental epidemiology and physiology at Harvard University. For context, the average American is exposed to an average of 10 micrograms per cubic meter every year, much of it from burning fossil fuels during Beijing’s most polluted years a decade ago, the city hovered around 100 micrograms. The study found that the risk of dementia rose by 17 percent for every two micrograms per cubic meter increase in people’s annual exposure to PM2.5. Dementia, an umbrella term for the loss of mental functioning that includes Alzheimer’s disease, afflicts more than 7 million people in the United States and 57 million worldwide. It’s the most comprehensive look yet at the link between the neurological condition and exposure to PM2.5 - fine particles that are 2.5 microns wide or less released by wildfires, traffic, power plants, and other sources. The analysis, conducted by researchers at Harvard’s medical school, was released on Wednesday in the BMJ, a peer-reviewed medical journal. Just a small increase in the pollution people breathe can raise their risk of developing dementia, according to a new study that lays the groundwork for stricter air quality regulations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |