The negative health effects of air pollution have long been known, but studies are only now showing what living in a polluted city does to your cognitive ability over time.
A 2018 study into the effects of living in an area with high levels of air pollution on people’s cognitive abilities revealed some worrying results.
The study – a part of the annual, nationally representative China Family Panel Studies – found that participants living in areas with high values of air pollution showed a marked decline in their cognitive test scores compared to other candidates.
A three-year survey of 162 randomly chosen regions in China found that maths and, in particular, verbal test scores decreased for participants exposed to air pollution.
While the negative health effects of air pollution have long been documented, this is one of the first studies to demonstrate their detrimental effect on cognitive ability.
For this reason, the researchers conclude that the economic cost of air pollution could be greater than previously thought.
A World Health Organisation report published in May found that 9 out of 10 people breathe air containing high levels of pollutants, with those in poorer regions the most exposed.
Ambient, or outdoor air pollution alone caused some 4.2 million deaths in 2016, while household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and technologies caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in the same period.
“It is unacceptable that over 3 billion people – most of them women and children – are still breathing deadly smoke every day from using polluting stoves and fuels in their homes,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
China, known to have critical levels of air pollution in its cities, has pivoted toward climate protection in an effort to appease growing fears about pollution and export clean technology to other parts of Asia and Europe. – dpa
