The unpredictable effects of air pollution

Thirty thousand people die each year in Italy due to air pollution

In recent decades, awareness has increased that air quality affects our well-being and health.

The effects can range from annoying allergies to serious respiratory diseases to the development of lung cancer and premature death.

According to the Ministry of Health, 30,000 deaths in Italy each year are attributable to pollutants in the air including fine particulate matter (PM2.5).

Estimates have calculated that on average pollution shortens the life of each Italian by 10 months. Just by complying with the legal limits, that is, not exceeding 50 micrograms per cubic meter in a day, 11,000 lives a year could be saved.

”There are many different components of smog that can be harmful to health, including a variety of gases, volatile liquid compounds and particles. Overall, it appears that particulate matter is the most dangerous fraction. These particles come from a wide range of sources and can be chemically very complex.”

Mark Miller, researcher at the Centre for Cardiovascular Science of The University of Edinburg.

Chess tournament: watch your moves

The game of chess requires challengers to maintain high concentration at all times and to have their reflexes ready in case of a last-minute change in strategy. Very often, chess tournaments are held indoors where players are most likely to be exposed to high levels of particulate matter, certainly higher than in the open air.

Researchers at the Institute of Labor Economics, a German network dedicated to the study of labor economics, in this regard decided to test the effects of pollution on chess players’ performance. For three years, the researchers collected results from major German chess tournaments, while installing sensors with which to analyze air quality during the games. The data collected allowed them to correlate more than 30 thousand moves made by 121 players in 596 games with the levels of particulate matter in the air. And they determined that for every additional 10 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) of fine particulate matter (so-called Pm 2.5), a chess player is 26.3 percent more likely to make a mistake.

Before engaging in a game of chess, it is always best to make sure you are breathing healthy air.

Polluted air ages the brain

Air pollution prematurely ages our brains by weakening memory and increasing the risk of dementia.

This is confirmed by a groundbreaking study conducted by researchers from the Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neuroscience and published in the international journal ‘‘Environmental Research.”

The researchers sought to understand whether particulate pollution negatively affects the volume of the hippocampus and consequently its very important cognitive and memory functions, increasing the very risk of dementia.

The study found that fine particulate matter, and in particular so-called fine particulate matter (PM2.5), is associated with a significant reduction in hippocampal volume.

What emerged is that increasing pollution levels by 10 µg/m3 of PM2.5 results in an effect similar to that exerted by one year of ”childbearing age,” with a true premature aging effect induced by high levels of outdoor air pollution.

Pollution and Alzheimer’s disease

The lower the concentrations of pollutants, the less likely we are to experience the cognitive decline typical of Alzheimer‘s patients.

Improving the air we breathe is critically important in reducing the risk of dementia.

That was the message shared at the recent Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), one of the world’s most important conferences dedicated to dementia.

Several studies were presented at the AAIC conference showing how the pollutants we breathe daily can influence the development of dementia by worsening health in the long term.

A French study showed a 15 percent reduction in the risk of developing dementia in those places where there has been a reduction in PM2.5 levels over the past 10 years.

Baseball games and umpire performance

Our judging ability is also affected by the effects of particulate matter. As in the case of umpires who umpire baseball games.

In fact, research from the University of Chicago reveals a link between air pollution and accuracy in umpiring: by increasing measured CO2 levels by one part per million over 3 hours, the likelihood of an umpire making an error in judgment actually increases by 11.5 percent; while 10 μg/m3 more particulate matter over 12 hours increases errors by 2.6 percent.

A similar example comes from the world of finance.

Manhattan Brokers

Research by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private U.S. nonprofit research organization, cross-referenced New York Stock Exchange results with particulate matter levels in Manhattan’s air, revealing that on the most polluted days, brokers make significantly less money.

According to the study’s authors, pollution would act at the brain level on the mood and cognitive abilities of investors and traders, predisposing them to take fewer risks in their financial transactions and consequently lower earnings.

Language properties

Bad air also seems to be the enemy of language. Even for those who make it a profession, such as politicians.

A University of Wisconsin study analyzed more than 100 thousand sentences uttered by Canadian parliamentarians between 2006 and 2011, looking for a link to pollution levels in the air.

All else being equal, with PM2.5 concentrations above 15 μg/m3, MPs’ language skills over the course of the day would decrease by 2.3 percent.

An effect comparable to about 2.6 fewer months of study over a lifetime.

Pre-term births and low infant birth weight

Air pollution is responsible for about 6 million preterm births worldwide each year and more than 3 million babies born underweight.

That’s according to several scientific studies to date on the link between air pollution (inside and outside the home) and the health of new mothers and unborn babies.

A team of researchers reviewed 108 studies related to indoor and outdoor pollution, correlating the results with four major risk factors in pregnancy: gestation period at delivery, reduced birth weight, underweight status of the newborn, and premature birth.

The survey involved 204 countries worldwide.

After contemplating other risk factors besides pollution in the survey such as the new mother’s lifestyle, diet, and alcohol and tobacco consumption, it was found that air pollution is the leading cause of underweight newborns and premature births.

In fact, according to the World Health Organization, more than 92 percent of the global population lives in areas where air quality is below recommended limits, while about 49 percent of people are exposed to high levels of pollution even within the home.