Silent brain killer: dementia experts road pollution warning
Air pollution has emerged as a small but important risk factor for dementia and cognitive decline, experts say – and Australia probably has a false sense of security about how clean our air is.
UTS Professor Hui Chen. Photo source: Louise Kennerley The Sydney Morning Herald
One of Australia’s leading dementia epidemiologists says she would no longer live on a busy road after watching the science linking air pollution and dementia strengthen over the past two decades.
She’s even come to worry about cyclists pedalling along the side of highways.
“All the observational studies keep showing a cognitive decline is associated with high levels of air pollution,” says Professor Kaarin Anstey, director of the University of NSW Ageing Futures Institute and senior principal research scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia. “There has been study after study.”
In the early 2000s, researchers in heavily polluted Mexico City discovered an association between children living in more polluted areas and inflammation of the brain.
Subsequent studies have shown a small but consistent association with neurodegeneration in children and adults across small neighbourhoods and large countries.
Continue reading on the Sydney Morning Herald: Silent killer of our brain’: Dementia experts warn about road pollution
