A major study published in August 2018 shockingly found that air pollution causes a “huge” reduction in intelligence. For the worst affected category, older men, the damage is equivalent to having spent a few less years in education, possibly due to inflammation of the brain. The average damage across men and women of all ages was one lost year of learning.
Recent research has also linked air pollution to mental illness, particularly the risk of suicide.
A recent study in Hong Kong found spikes in toxic air correlated with “extremely high mortality” in people with mental disorders. In Belgium, another study found the same link to suicide, even when pollution was below legal limits. Similar results have been found in Salt Lake City, Utah, South Korea and, in people under 30, in Tokyo.
Dementia – a general term for thinking or memory problems – is also linked to poor air quality. Research in London found people over-50 in areas with the highest nitrogen dioxide pollution had a 40% greater risk of developing dementia. US research saw a similar effect for particle pollution.