Written by Bedirhan Atabay
Air pollution started to become a concerning issue, especially in the last decade. More and more people started to have illnesses because of them, as they ruined the way our bodies functioned. Various ailments spread all over the world because of the immense amount of toxic particles in the air. In this text, I am going to explain the way our brain gets affected by air pollution. If you are ready, then let’s start!
There is a particle in the dirty air called "fine particulate matter." This matter was already known in the past due to its cardiovascular damage on body parts such as the lungs; however, researchers discovered that the effects of this particle on human health extended far beyond cardiovascular damage and also harmed people's mental health. Research about the effects of those particles on humans was conducted with nearly 20,000 women. These women were exposed to both fine particulate matter, which has a size smaller than 2.5 micrometers, and coarse particulate matter, which has a length ranging from 2.5 to 10 micrometers in size. According to the research, fine particulate matter was more damaging than coarse particulate matter (4). Another study was carried out on mice. In this research, newborn mice were exposed to toxic air, and then the status of their brains was checked. Then, the research group requested to check the difference in the brain between the normal and toxic air-exposed mice from Cory-Slechta. At first, she was not interested in checking the statistics, as she was focusing on deadly lead exposure at the time, and she did not think that there was a bad effect of toxins in the air on the structure of the brain; however, she was utterly shocked when she checked the brains and noticed that all of the mice’s brains were inflamed by the toxins in the mice’s brain. Her team continued to look for other effects that the toxins had on the mice's brains, and they discovered that autism, attention deficit disorder, and schizophrenia were all present (1).
Toxic air can enter our brain in different ways: The first is by breaching the blood barrier.The second is entering the body via our nose hole and then affecting the neurons there afterward. The third way is by entering our digestive system. As aforementioned in the research, the effects of the coarse particles on the human body are less than those of the fine particles. The main reason behind this was that the trespassing process was easier for the fine particles than the coarse particles, which made them a lot more dangerous than the coarse particles (4).
There are various types of research conducted about the effects of the toxins in the polluted air on our brains, and according to those studies, 73% of the conducted research recorded differences in the parts of the brain and 95% of the research recorded damage to the brain due to the toxins. However, only 10% of the conducted research is about the damage of toxins on the brain, as the rest of the research was conducted on animals. This shows briefly that the knowledge about the effects of air pollution on humans is pretty limited, as most of the research is conducted on animals (4).
(Image Credit: https://www.momscleanairforce.org/fine-particle-brain-damage/.)
In conclusion, while more advanced research on the effects of toxic air on the human brain is needed, the effects of harmful particles are being observed by a broad scientific community.
References:
How air pollution threatens brain health | PNAS. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2008940117.
Air Quality, cognition, and Mental Health: How Air Pollution Impacts the brain. Low-Cost Air Quality Monitoring & Measurement. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.clarity.io/blog/air-quality-cognition-and-mental-health-how-air-pollution-impacts-the-brain.
How air pollution messes with our minds. Cen.acs.org. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemistry/neuroscience/air-pollution-messes-minds/98/i2.
This is the impact of air pollution on your brain and mental health. World Economic Forum. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/11/impact-air-pollution-brain-mental-health/.
Weir, K. (n.d.). Smog in our brains. Monitor on Psychology. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/smog.
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