Why air pollution could speed up the onset of dementia and Parkinson’s
Air pollution is causing people in the UK to develop chronic diseases such as dementia and Parkinson’s earlier, a new study has found.
Analyzing data from the UK Biobank, researchers from China’s Sun Yat-Sen University, Saint Louis University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong looked at records of more than 900,000 hospital admissions from 396,000 Britons aged 39 to 70 who volunteered to take part in the study between 2006 and 2010.
The study tracked the first occurrence of 78 chronic diseases such as hypertension, stroke, COPD, diabetes and dementia. Researchers found that exposure to high levels of air pollution was associated with an earlier onset of 48 of 78 long-term diseases, by more than 61 percent.
The study found that exposure to high air pollution significantly accelerates the onset of neurological and psychiatric disorders such as dystonia and myasthenia gravis by about two to five years. Schizophrenia was similarly affected, with the age of onset decreasing by approximately 2.4 to 3.8 percent.
Overexposure to air pollution helped speed up the average age of onset for a significant number of 78 chronic conditions; hypertension, diabetes and asthma emerged as the top three contributing causes to this condition.
While this isn’t the first study to examine how air pollution is linked to chronic disease risk, there are few papers exploring how it might make people develop these conditions at a younger age.
A writer told Guard: “Our study shows that air pollution is not only a risk factor for disease, but also acts as a silent accelerator that robs individuals of their healthiest years.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on countries around the world to improve their air quality in 2021 to reduce “the enormous health burden caused by exposure to air pollution worldwide.”
As air pollution continues to decline across Europe, the European Energy Agency estimates that 94 percent of the urban population is exposed to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the pollutant most harmful to human health, above WHO guideline levels.
The Royal College of Physicians last year issued a warning that air pollution was predicted to be the equivalent of 30,000 deaths in the UK by 2025, costing more than £27bn annually.
The university compared last year’s air pollution situation with 2019, when healthcare costs, productivity losses and reduced quality of life cost the UK more than £27bn. The government has estimated that the equivalent of 29,000 to 43,000 deaths in the UK in 2019 were linked to air pollution.
They warned that although exposure to pollutants is projected to fall in coming years under current government policies, including Net Zero, annual costs could still be as high as £30bn in 2040.
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman said: “Poor air quality is robbing people of their health and costing the NHS millions in extra treatments for lung conditions and asthma.
“Therefore, the government remains committed to improving air quality to benefit public health, the environment and the economy.
“We have set new air quality targets to reduce exposure to harmful particles by almost a third by 2030 and improve lives across the country. Alongside this, we are taking steps to reform areas such as simpler industrial permits to reduce emissions and tightening standards for new wood-burning appliances to help reduce health impacts.”
