Long Term Data on Particulate Air Pollution and Dementia in a US Population

There is plenty of evidence for particulate air pollution to have a negative effect on long-term health, particularly those derived from Asian populations that are exposed to more coal and wood smoke than tends to be the case in the US and Western Europe. While the relative importance of the various mechanisms involved are up for debate, the most plausible are those involving raised inflammation as a result of interactions between particles and lung tissue. The chronic inflammation of aging drives near all age-related conditions, and more inflammation means more dysfunction. As researchers note here, not all particulate air pollution is equal. It is reasonable to expect some types of particle to be worse than others, and that is what is found by mining data on health and pollution in a region of the US. This is focused on the Northeast, and one might consider comparing this with another interesting analysis of long-term US data on health and air pollution, that one covering the Puget Sound region. Both studies focused on the link to age-related neurodegeneration, a set of conditions strongly correlated with inflammation. Long-term effects of PM2.5 components on incident dementia in the northeastern United States Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is an important air pollutant worldwide. Exposure to PM2.5 has been associated with adverse health effects, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, lung cancer, and premature mortality. Several stud...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs