Natalie Frank, a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, specializes in pediatric psychology and behavioral health.

According to a new study, air pollution leads to a “huge reduction” in intelligence. The impact of breathing high levels of pollution regularly is “equivalent to having lost a year of education,” the study finds. As worrisome as the effects of pollution, a well known health hazard, are on physical health, this research suggests that the damage of air that is poisonous to the body goes deeper than that, damaging the brain as well. The research, conducted in China, is relevant for people all over the world. Estimates suggest that 95% of the global population is currently breathing air that is dangerous to their health and well-being.

What is Air Pollution

Air pollution occurs when there are excessive amounts of dangerous or harmful substances including gases, particulates and biological molecules find their way into the the air. There are two general categories of air pollution that create problems for people and the environment. These include:

Primary Air Pollution - Primary air pollution consists of pollutants that are fully formed when they enter the atmosphere. Examples of primary air pollution include:

Carbon Oxides include carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon monoxide is toxic to plants, animals and people. CO and CO2 are both greenhouse gases. Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can lead to destructive weather patterns, harm to the oceans, alteration of species migration, negative impacts on agriculture and deadly health effects. These types of pollution are particularly dangerous in that they are colorless, odorless gases which require special devices to detect.

Lead is a heavy metal that was once used in paint, the inside of pipes and car fuels. Lead can cause brain damage and blood poisoning.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are also considered the be primary air pollution. These are hydrocarbons such as methane, another greenhouse gas that is growing because of humans, chlorofluorocarbons which has negatively effected the ozone layer, and dioxin a negative byproduct of chemical production which is harmful to people and animals.

Secondary Pollutants - Secondary pollutants are those which are formed by pollutants coming together and react in the atmosphere. Secondary pollutants include:

Nitrogen oxides are produced when nitrogen and oxygen come together and are caused to react by high temperatures. This happens in heated car exhaust gas, and the emissions of from power plants, or factories.

Sulfur oxides - Sulfur oxides develop when sulfur created by burning coal and sulfur trioxide include sulfur dioxide (SO2) and sulfur trioxide (SO3) combine and enter the atmosphere. Sulfur oxides are part of acid rain.

Particulates are particles like volcanic ash and dust. They come from combustible fossil fuels and lead to smog. Smog can lead to the development and exacerbation of asthma, cardiac disease, respiratory illness and cancer

Ozone - Ozone develops when hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides combine in the presence of sunlight

The Burden of Toxic Air

It is no surprise that the poorest communities are hit the hardest by air pollution. The difference between the most and least polluted countries is growing rapidly. These finding were reported from a comprehensive study of global air pollution. Cities and urban areas are the most dangerous places for polluted air and these areas are home to the majority of the world’s population.

This means that billions of people are exposed to unsafe air. Developing countries are the ones with the highest rates of toxic air. Yet this isn’t the whole story. In rural areas the risk of air pollution is greatest indoors resulting from burning solid fuel, where it is concentrated. Over 33 percent of the world’s people are exposed to bother indoor and outdoor air pollution. Air pollution is now the fourth highest cause of death worldwide after diet, smoking and high blood pressure. It is considered to be the largest environmental health risk

How Does Air Pollution Effect Health?

For more than 30 years, environmental studies have been determining the effects of polluted air on the human body. There are a wide variety of physical problems that are associated with exposure to air pollution including asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and other respiratory illnesses, decreased lung function, cardiovascular disease, birth defects, premature birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia and death. The WHO has determined that air pollution is cancer causing in humans.

Those most susceptible to developing major health problems from air pollution exposure are:

Individuals with heart disease, coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure

Individuals with lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Pregnant women

Individuals who work outdoors

Older adults

Children under age 14

Athletes and others who exercise vigorously outdoors

How Does Pollution Affect the Brain?

Previous studies have demonstrated that children and young adults are particularly at risk for inflammation of brain tissue and disruption of the blood-brain barrier as the result of long-term exposure to toxic air. The effects on the brain are not limited to the young. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that air pollution may be a major cause of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

It has been indicated that pollution particles from burning fossil fuels may enter the brain through the through the nasal nerve. These particles may have heavy metal neurotoxins attached to them, which kill neurons directly. They can also cause by triggering a continuous immune response in the brain. This can lead to a buildup of amyloid-beta plaques typically seen in people prior to the onset of Alzheimer’s or dementia state (Calderón-Garcidueñas, Calderón-Garcidueñas, Torres-Jardón, Avila-Ramírez, Kulesza, & Angiulli, 2015).

Amyloid-beta plaques have also been found in the brains of children in cities with serious air pollution. Other types of brain damage such as vasculature and leaky blood brain barriers have also been found in these children (Calderón-Garcidueñas, Leray, Heydarpour, Torres-Jardón, & Reis, 2016). While the greater resiliency provides some protection against the severe types of brain disorders seen in older adults, these kinds of damage are associated with lowered IQ.

In some cities like Beijing, China people wear masks to avoid air pollution

Air Pollution Leads to Drop in Intelligence

The study conducted in China, found that high pollution levels were associated with significant drops in test scores in language and arithmetic. The average scores were found to be equivalent to a loss of one year of education. These findings are consistent with those of previous studies which showed that Previous air pollution had a negative effect on children’s cognitive abilities.

“Polluted air can cause everyone to reduce their level of education by one year, which is huge,” said Xi Chen at Yale School of Public Health, a member of the research team. “But we know the effect is worse for the elderly, especially those over 64, and for men, and for those with low education. If we calculate the loss for those, it may be a few years of education.”

Previous research has found that air pollution harms achievement and performance in students in limited areas of the world but this is the first to assess people of all ages and to compare genders.

Regarding age the reduction in intelligence was greatest for those over 64 years of age. This has serious consequences as this is the time we make many important decisions especially financial ones.

Other studies have found that air pollution was associated with high death rates in people with mental disorders, increased risk of mental illness in children and and increased risk of dementia.

The recent study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined language and arithmetic tests that were conducted as part of the China Family Panel Studies. Over 20,000 people across the country were evaluated over the course of five years and their results were compared with levels of nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide pollution

Results indicated that the longer people were exposed to toxic air, the greater the reduction in intelligence. Language skills were impacted more severely that mathematical skills with men showing greater overall reductions than women. Some hypothesis that this is due to differences in how male and female brains function. Though further tests need to be conducted, it is believed that the air pollution was the cause of the drop in intelligence and not just being a correlation. Researchers attribute part of the problem to the fact that toxic air is associated with oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration.

The study longitudinal such that the same subjects were followed over time so factors such as genetic differences that might account for the findings were controlled for. The scientists also controlled for the normal decline in cognition that occurs with age and ruled out other factors such as the tendency of participants to be more impatient, impulsive in answering or uncooperative on the days when pollution was exceptionally high.

Air pollution was also found to have a short-term effects which could have important ramifications for important events in a person’s life, such as when students must take critical exams on days with high pollution. The effect is likely cumulative with and increase in pollution by 1 mg over several years might lead to a several month loss in intelligence.

How Can I Protect Myself From Air Pollution?

Though there isn’t much you can do to completely avoid air pollution, there are some things you can do to help protect yourself from the effects.

Avoid walking or exercising along busy streets

Check air pollution levels daily and refrain from going outside as much as possible when these levels are high

When pollution is high, stain indoors with an air conditioner running that has a clean filter

When pollution is high avoid activity to decrease heavy breathing and intake of the pollutants

In some cities where smog can reach dangerous levels, tight fitting mask should be worn to seal out as much of the pollutants as possible. Surgical masks, handkerchiefs and the like are ineffective as the air get around them.

In some countries, relatively inexpensive air quality monitors can be purchased and mounted on the outside of the house to measure air pollution so you can keep track of the levels

Replace wood-burning fireplaces with natural gas ones

Don't allow anyone to smoke in your home

Use the recycled air feature in your car, rather than the vents to cool off in the car

Replace gas-powered machines, like lawn mowers and leaf blowers, with electric or battery-powered ones

Install a home air filter that blocks air pollution

Summary and Conclusions

In China, although air pollution is being cleaned up it is still over three times higher that the World Health Organization limits. Realizing the impact of air pollution on the health of its citizens, China, home to several of the cities with the greatest amount of toxic air pollution, has been attempting to fight against pollution for the past 7 years.

Road traffic makes the largest contribution to air pollution in residential areas. Governments need to act together to agree to remove heavy polluting vehicles from the streets.

There is clearly no easy solution to this problem, especially given the years that we have been attempting to control air pollution, which may have made a dent but not much more. It is difficult to form a universal position on cleaning up the environment when the problem can’t always be seen or felt. Adding to this, Government and other world leaders are often more interested in protecting national resources than something that can’t be controlled at the borders.

Focusing on how cleaning up air pollution may increase human capital and help the workforce could help influence the development of more impactful measures for curbing pollution. Human capital is one of the most significant driving forces of economic growth worldwide. If governments understand that the human capital of their nation is at risk because of air pollution this might be an added incentive to clean up the air.

References

An, B., Jennings, N., & Li, Z. J. (2018). ACM TIST Special Issue on Urban Intelligence. ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (TIST), 9(3), 23.

Calderón-Garcidueñas, L., Calderón-Garcidueñas, A., Torres-Jardón, R., Avila-Ramírez, J., Kulesza, R. J., & Angiulli, A. D. (2015). Air pollution and your brain: what do you need to know right now. Primary health care research & development, 16(4), 329-345.

Calderón-Garcidueñas, L., Leray, E., Heydarpour, P., Torres-Jardón, R., & Reis, J. (2016). Air pollution, a rising environmental risk factor for cognition, neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration: the clinical impact on children and beyond. Revue neurologique, 172(1), 69-80.

Chen, X., Shao, S., Tian, Z., Xie, Z., & Yin, P. (2017). Impacts of air pollution and its spatial spillover effect on public health based on China's big data sample. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142, 915-925.

Cohen, A. J., Brauer, M., Burnett, R., Anderson, H. R., Frostad, J., Estep, K., ... & Feigin, V. (2017). Estimates and 25-year trends of the global burden of disease attributable to ambient air pollution: an analysis of data from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2015. The Lancet, 389(10082), 1907-1918.

Kilian, J., & Kitazawa, M. (2018). The emerging risk of exposure to air pollution on cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease–Evidence from epidemiological and animal studies. Biomedical journal.

Landrigan, P. J. (2017). Air pollution and health. The Lancet Public Health, 2(1), e4-e5.

Sidhu, M. K., Ravindra, K., Mor, S., & John, S. (2017). Household air pollution from various types of rural kitchens and its exposure assessment. Science of the Total Environment, 586, 419-429.

Zhang, X., Chen, X., and Zhang, X., (2018). The impact of exposure to air pollution on cognitive performance. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.





This content reflects the personal opinions of the author. It is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and should not be substituted for impartial fact or advice in legal, political, or personal matters.

© 2018 Natalie Frank

Natalie Frank (author) from Chicago, IL on September 14, 2018:

BradMasterOCcal - I have added a section defining air pollution. Regarding where I got my information, the primary article is already linked and the reference is included in the Resources section. This section includes 7 other references as well. I also responded to your last comment with five additional references. Thanks for you comment.

BradMasterOCcal on September 12, 2018:

Natalie Frank

The question I have about your article is that you never explain what is pollution?

Where did you get your information contained in this article?

Is CO2 an air pollutant?

Natalie Frank (author) from Chicago, IL on September 12, 2018:

Miebakagh - thanks once more for your continued support and comments. I truly appreciate your feedback and hope to continue hearing from you regularly. Best Wishes.

Miebakagh Fiberesima from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, NIGERIA. on September 10, 2018:

Natalie, thank you. I expect to hear from our friend BrodmasterOcal, and I am still expecting. Your articles are not to be toyed with but to be taken seriously. Everyone is still learning. Thank you again.

Natalie Frank (author) from Chicago, IL on September 10, 2018:

Miebakagh - You are right, every study can be built on to develop new research to further clarify an issue. Thanks for reading and for commenting.

Miebakagh Fiberesima from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, NIGERIA. on September 07, 2018:

@BradmasterOCal &@Natalie, okay, with all these said, let's conduct a simple test (to be done by Bradmaster). Turn off the electric lights, and burn a candle daily for reading at night. After a week, tell us your observation about your intelligence. I think as you have realized smoking make air pollution at a personal level unbearable. The candle you burn will likewise pollute the air you breathe. This experiment I initiated and contribute when I was a boy during my chemistry lesson in grammar school. Natalie was right in her citations. Every study can further be used for research. Her contributions here are subject to investigations for the facts they are contained. They can lead to new findings that can help humanity. Thank you.

Natalie Frank (author) from Chicago, IL on September 06, 2018:

Yes, that's it exactly, Bill. We don't pay attention to the fact that air pollution is all around us and most of us don't really consider our individual contributions to it. It's kind of like voting and thinking my one vote won't matter - In this case it's my little bit of hair spray, emissions, etc won't really change anything. Thanks for stopping by and for commenting.

Natalie Frank (author) from Chicago, IL on September 06, 2018:

Thanks Liz. Yes every little bit helps. Unfortunately, we are dealing with health issues as well as cognitive functioning being affected by something we have grown so used to we often ignore unless it is so bad we literally can't see through it. We need to speed up the process. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

Natalie Frank (author) from Chicago, IL on September 06, 2018:

I don't intend to delete - differences of opinion are important when considering research, science or really anything in life.

While studies aren't facts there are a series of rules that go into conducting valid ones so they aren't just opinions either. With regards to intelligence and air pollution this isn't the first study on this - at this point the relationship between air pollution and cognitive function in general has been established through numerous studies as have the effects of air pollution on unborn children and the development of cognitive functioning and later intelligence. Some basic refs if you are interested taken from the just the last five years

Clifford, A., Lang, L., Chen, R., Anstey, K. J., & Seaton, A. (2016). Exposure to air pollution and cognitive functioning across the life course–a systematic literature review. Environmental research, 147, 383-398.

Peterson, B. S., Rauh, V. A., Bansal, R., Hao, X., Toth, Z., Nati, G., ... & Perera, F. (2015). Effects of prenatal exposure to air pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) on the development of brain white matter, cognition, and behavior in later childhood. JAMA psychiatry, 72(6), 531-540.

Calderón-Garcidueñas, L., Mora-Tiscareño, A., Franco-Lira, M., Zhu, H., Lu, Z., Solorio, E., ... & D'Angiulli, A. (2015). Decreases in short term memory, IQ, and altered brain metabolic ratios in urban apolipoprotein ε4 children exposed to air pollution. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 45(3), 757-770.

Salahodjaev, R., & Yuldashev, O. (2016). Intelligence and greenhouse gas emissions: Introducing Intelligence Kuznets curve.

Sunyer, J., Esnaola, M., Alvarez-Pedrerol, M., Forns, J., Rivas, I., López-Vicente, M., ... & Viana, M. (2015). Association between traffic-related air pollution in schools and cognitive development in primary school children: a prospective cohort study. PLoS medicine, 12(3), e1001792.

I'm curious about your last comment. What do you mean that you don't see bad air as the basis of the study?

Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.

Natalie Frank (author) from Chicago, IL on September 06, 2018:

Miebakagh - Thanks once again for reading and for your informative comments. It good that you try to limit your exposure to hydrocarbon fumes and other other potential environmental toxins. You are right about developing countries catching up. Also, sometimes developing countries are in a hurry to catch up and don't put preventative measures in place that might slow their progress. Thanks again for stopping by.

Bill Holland from Olympia, WA on August 30, 2018:

Well that explains a great deal regarding voters, doesn't it? LOL I'm just being silly. There is no doubt this is a huge problem...it's like a silent killer. We don't even know we are the prey.

Liz Westwood from UK on August 29, 2018:

This is an interesting and topical article. I'm hoping that the move towards electric vehicles will help to improve air quality, but it's a slow process.

Brad on August 29, 2018:

While Air Pollution is not good, I doubt whether any study can really make any validated conclusion that they make about intelligence.

Studies are opinions and they shouldn't be confused with facts, much less the truth. China and much of the world were big users of tobacco, and that is air pollution brought to a personal level.

I am not arguing that bad air is not unhealthy, I just don't see it as the basis of the study.

del if u wish.

Miebakagh Fiberesima from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, NIGERIA. on August 29, 2018:

@Flourishantway, I live at the precincts of a waterfront, below sea level. Here air pollution is quite minimal. No cars or motorcycles moving. The main railway station is 50 yards away and is non-functional. The main and first refinery of Nigeria is some 4 km away and is non-functioning too.

Nevertheless, I still take good care not to allow too many hydrocarbon fumes from electric generators to hinder my well being and that of others, and the environment. I used one.

Like as Natalie informed, about 95% of air pollution globally is a serious issue. The question is where does the air pollutant arise in the first instant? It is among the most advanced industrial countries. But developing countries are catching up. For example, 2 km away from the non-functioning refineries, is a fertilizer plant, which is being re-activated. How its industrial wastes will be recycled, is what the law will look into. Natalie Frank always published highly informative articles. Thank you.

Natalie Frank (author) from Chicago, IL on August 28, 2018:

I know how you feel Flourish. We think if we don't live in downtown L.A. or the like it's not bad. I was a bit shocked when I read the stats saying that 95% of the global population breathes unhealthy air. Anything we can do to protect ourselves is important. Thanks for stopping by and for the comment.

Natalie Frank (author) from Chicago, IL on August 28, 2018:

Miebakagh, You are welcome. Thanks for reading.

FlourishAnyway from USA on August 28, 2018:

Although I don’t live in a major metropolitan area, I live close enough to one to worry some. I don’t enjoy traveling into the city with bumper to bumper traffic and the litter. I’m going to check those AC air vents now that I’ve read this. No one smokes in my house or car ever.

Miebakagh Fiberesima from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, NIGERIA. on August 28, 2018:

Thanks , Natalie for the update.