Research indicates that air pollution is causing brain damage
Scientists already know that air pollution can impair airways and blood vessels. The COSMOS Magazine article Dirty Minds reveals that the emerging surprise is what it might do to the brain. Increasingly, studies have been highlighting inflammation-provoking nanopollutants as a potential source of nerve cell damage. Research on Mexico City children has uncovered brain deposits of proteins that serve as hallmarks of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and Mexico City’s stew of air pollutants has been correlated with a suite of symptoms in people of all ages. Another German study found that elderly women who lived within 50m of very busy streets exhibited poorer memory skills than did women of the same age whose homes were well removed from highly trafficked roadways.