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Air pollution directly linked to increased dementia risk
- ck2 1y agodirectly related, really hoping AirGradient got their US warehouse setup before the tariff implosion blocked every other country postal deliveries
- swayvil 1y agoTherefore city dwellers are demented and rural dwellers aren't. (And this says nothing about the effects of noise pollution or aesthetic pollution) EDIT Oh come on, it's the obvious conclusion. So discuss already.
- amanaplanacanal 1y agoIt depends. Pollution can be higher in the cities, or it can be higher in areas with high wildfire risk, or it can depend on specific geography which traps polluted air. You have to look at each case individually. For example, in my state there is a specific more rural area which has a high incidence if heating with wood stoves, and they have higher air pollution that other more urban areas. Another possibility is that urban areas are richer on average, and therefore might have better air filtration systems in homes and businesses than poorer rural areas. You can't tell without actually gathering the data.
- gausswho 1y agoThere's a lot of interesting confounding factors from an air quality perspective wrt urban vs suburban vs rural. Leaf / lawn blowers. Driving vs walking/public transit. Ground level vs up high. Tradewinds (west coast vs east coast vs AZ dust storm / wildfires).
- plorkyeran 1y agoOne of the surprising things about visiting the mountains to do various outdoor activities in nature is how often the air quality is worse than it is at home in an urban area. A big part of this is that "home" is the SF Bay Area and we have consistent winds blowing inland from the ocean, which blows our air pollution to other people (and the air gets noticeable worse when this doesn't happen), but also the air quality is often shockingly poor in rural areas. Wood stoves, diesel generators, and the like in spots where the pollution gets trapped can do a lot even with low density. On average the air quality is worse in cities than in rural areas, but at least in the United States the difference is smaller than you might expect. In countries that do not take urban air pollution seriously it gets very bad, of course.
- J_Shelby_J 1y agoIt would be if it was only pollution but my understanding it’s pm2.5 in general. Rural areas can and do have high pm2.5. Look at the map. It could be agriculture or dust or flora.
- bamboozled 1y agoI've heard the argument made that it's better to stop burning fossil fuel, even if you're a climate change denier for reasons like this. Even if you think climate change is a hoax, why not reduce pollution anyway?
- graemep 1y agoI agree. It also reduces the world's dependence on unstable regions. However, some things that are regarded as renewable (e.g. wood burning, such as the notorious Drax power station in the UK) are more polluting than fossil fuels. Personally I doubt they are even effective at CO₂ reduction. What we need is clean energy.
- FollowingTheDao 1y ago> It also reduces the world's dependence on unstable regions. Do you think the world might have made these regions unstable because they have the oil?
- acdha 1y agoIt’s definitely a combination of both but I think oil wealth is inherently destabilizing because it tends to be concentrated in areas which were not previously rich and densely populated (most of the world by area) and because the way the market works allows a relatively small number of people to be wealthy without much local support compared to, say, high-end manufacturing which require lots of skilled workers and local investment. Norway is basically the only example of a petrostate where the money is invested in the betterment of the entire country.
- lazide 1y agoThe middle east was literally roving bands of desert Bedouins and warring religious states long before fossil oil was known to be useful, let alone of major geopolitical importance. Have people meddled since? Of course. Such is how power works. But you'd have to go back to Roman times to find a period of stability in the middle east, and the factors that led to that have nothing to do with Oil.
- Havoc 1y agoOnly so much you can do about ambient pollution in your city. Looking carefully at your cooking situation is worthwhile though. Was horrified by the spike in readings from stuff like steak in a pan
- ajkjk 1y agoWell studies like this are often directed at policymakers, who actually can do something about it.
- FollowingTheDao 1y agoAnd lobbyists are also directed at those policy makers...which is the bigger problem. Big spikes in soft money group spending in 22 and 24 elections... https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus?cycle=2024&ind=E01 https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus?cycle=2024&ind=...
- lazide 1y agoPolicy makers generally only give a damn if someone else makes them - or they get something from it.
- tim333 1y agoThey can do the old fashioned make things better to make the voters happy and get reelected. In London the mayor has brought in a lot of anti pollution measures and although the tabloids and right wing media go on about how awful he is, he gets reelected, including my voting. This thing says roadside ppm2.5 is down from 17 to 8 in central where I live https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/07/london-air-pollution-down-since-ulez-expansion-study https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/07/london-a...
- ajkjk 1y agoThat's the cynical take, but as far as I can tell it is far from universally true. You just hear about all the bad cases. Not to mention, the the way it pulls on policy can be much more subtle than getting bills passed.
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- it_citizen 1y agoWhat level of PM2.5 are they considering? I cannot read the full study
- hopelite 1y agoIt feels like manipulative lying to me when they show the distribution of PM2.5 in the USA through that heat map, where the scale of pollution only goes to 15 when the most non-European block countries are way higher than 15. [1] https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-air-pollution-levels-around-the-world-2022/most https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-air-pollution-l... polluted place
- FollowingTheDao 1y agoIn my opinion, the reason air pollution effects dementia risk is through activation of Heat Shock Proteins and I think it is the most valuable place to be investing in research. Heat Shock Proteins in Alzheimer’s Disease: Role and Targeting https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6163571/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6163571/
- stefantalpalaru 1y ago[dead]
- hereme888 1y agoIt seems to be multifactorial. Per an OpenEvidence query, which cites many recent studies: "In summary, the mechanism of PM2.5-induced brain damage involves entry via the olfactory system and BBB, activation of glial cells, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, BBB disruption, and downstream neurodegenerative changes."
- FollowingTheDao 1y agoHeat Shock Proteins affect the function of all of those systems . Put that into OpenEvidence... Learn about biology instead of relying on simple searches for you answers.
- hereme888 1y agoLearn about biology? lol, idk how much more to do so. What's your professional training background?
- mc32 1y agoDoes this imply that in 30 years or more we should expect spikes in China, India and other places with exceptional air pollution? I don't doubt it and they could expect other implications if the pollution also included heavy metals and other chemicals in the air, water and land.
- hollerith 1y agoThe air pollution in China and India was already awful 30 years ago, so "spike" is not be best choice of word. "Continuation of a high level of dementia" would be better.
- mc32 1y agoI guess it would be a large and massive upswell in the coming decades because dementia isa trailing indicator and takes decades to have effect on populations. China only started pumping out massive amounts of dirty pollution in the mid 90's and China probably in the 2010s or so, so the impact is yet to hit them but if the conclusions are correct then wow...
- hollerith 1y agoI remember reports of terrible air pollution in China in the 1990s. China is burning much more coal now than it did then, and has about a thousand times more cars, but since the 1990s they've also instituted controls on how much air pollution a car or a unit of coal produces.
- elric 1y agoHopefully China will improve its care of dementia patients. N=1, but a Chinese friend's mother has dementia, and basically the family is expected to care of her full time, there seem to be no facilities (at least not for regular non-rich folks), and even getting a diagnosis was apparently a very hush-hush affair. Seems like it's something that isn't talked much about over there? Again, N=1.
- firesteelrain 1y agoDementia rates in Miami Dade are among the highest in the country while Utah is on the low end. What is striking is that Utah has worse air quality, which is a known risk factor, yet still shows lower prevalence. Why is that?
- sleepyguy 1y agoPerhaps there are more elderly people in Miami-Dade. What we should be asking is why aren't countries like China, India, and a lot of others in Asia suffering catastrophic rates of Dementia?
- firesteelrain 1y agoGood point. If air quality is a risk factor then how much?
- idiotsecant 1y agoChina's population skew heavily to middle age, whereas the US population pyramid is more like a population rectangle. It's entirely possible that they have an epidemic of dementia, but for a combination of social and demographic reasons that doesn't show in the data. Getting honest health data out of China, for example, is going to be pretty difficult. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:China_population_sex_by_age_on_Nov,_1st,_2020.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:China_population_sex_by... https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2024/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2...
- Mistletoe 1y agoThere are obviously lots more factors affecting dementia than air quality. Also Utah has worse air quality than Miami? Where in Utah? My trips to Utah I remember pristine air but of course I didn’t have an air monitor on board other than my nose. Edit: Oh I see >Utah, particularly in urban areas like the Wasatch Front, frequently experiences worse air quality than Miami. Utah's air quality issues are often caused by unique geographical and meteorological conditions. In winter, temperature inversions trap cold, polluted air in the valleys, leading to high levels of particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution. In the summer, heat and sunlight can create high levels of ground-level ozone. The American Lung Association has ranked cities in the Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem area among the worst for ozone and short-term particle pollution. >In contrast, Miami's air quality is generally "Good" throughout the year, with occasional exceptions. The primary pollutants are also PM2.5 and ozone, but the geographical and weather conditions do not contribute to the same level of pollutant trapping as in Utah. The city has programs in place for air quality monitoring and standards.
- phoenixhaber 1y agoI'd like to know the effects of air pollution on at risk populations that use inhalable drugs or smoke as well. I believe the results would be much worse. Potentially related https://m.slashdot.org/story/446420 https://m.slashdot.org/story/446420 EDIT commenting to child so as not to start a flame war. Lung scarring, emphasema, bronchial illness and so forth can cause the lungs to trap particulates in the lungs longer than they should over the long term this exacerbating health risks. It definitely makes sense.
- hopelite 1y agoThat does not make any sense to me. Now [inhalable] drug users and smokers are "at risk populations" and it's not the drug use or the direct inhaling of smoke, soot, and ash…usually without filtration…that is the issue and problem, but the air pollution is the thing they need to worry about? But maybe you will be happy to hear that the rates of pollution in the whole European civilization block are orders of magnitude lower than non-European blocks[1] [1] https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-air-pollution-levels-around-the-world-2022/ https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-air-pollution-l...
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- cluckindan 1y agoNot all inhalable drugs are the same. Also, not all inhalations are the same. Your idea could hold for people who smoke cigarettes or use combustion-heated pipes to consume hard drugs like meth or crack, or for people who smoke a lot of poor quality cannabis, especially without any kind of filtering. It probably doesn’t hold for people who use a dry herb vaporizer to consume cannabis, since the method of consumption doesn’t generate PM2.5 or combustion gases, and the volatile constituents of cannabis are well established to have local and systemic anti-inflammatory effects.
- hopelite 1y agoWhy do they show a picture of polluted India with people wearing masks and have some kind of skin thing going on, and then go on to show a heat map of PM2.5 rates across the USA, where the most polluted areas are nowhere near as polluted as non-western cities/countries [1]. Why do we never talk about the fact that the post polluted areas are not at all in the European civilization block, i.e., they are Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Chad, and the DR of Congo. So they should also have the highest rates of dementia if this research holds, right? This all just seems like gaslighting lies, manipulation, and abuse. [1] https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-air-pollution-levels-around-the-world-2022/ https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-air-pollution-l...
- _Algernon_ 1y agoWho is to say they don't? Most of those areas have a less developed health infrastructure, so I'd expect the statistics on dementia diagnoses to systemically underreport the issue. The average age in developing countries is also lower (due to both lower life expectancy and higher birth rate) which is a further confounding value to skew the numbers. Dementia is an old people game, even if it is true that air pollution worsens it.
- flouridist 1y ago> This all just seems like gaslighting lies, manipulation, and abuse. The countries you give all have less than half and usually less than a third the percentage of people over 65.
- hopelite 1y agoThat is simply not a good argument. Any number of things could even explain that is it were true, starting with the most basic and obvious math problem; the fact that their reproductive rates are way higher so any percentage of older people will invariably be far lower. Have you ever asked yourself why you make such irrational excuses?
- hawshemi 1y agoduh...
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- dynm 1y agoThis article repeats the common mistake of conflating correlations and causality. The main results are (1) that PM2.5 exposure is correlated with dementia in humans, (2) some experimental results with mice. This does not establish causality in humans. The paper is careful to stay juuuust on the right side of the line by carefully using "associated" in the right places. But the press release discards that pretense at rigor and jumps straight to full-on claims of causality in people: > Long-term exposure accelerates the development of Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease with dementia in people who are predisposed to the conditions. I think it's entirely possible (perhaps even likely) that this is true. But the paper does not show it.
- bitmasher9 1y agoWhy is this brought up here every time an association article is mentioned, every undergraduate that took a statistics course has covered the difference between correlation and causation. We do population level correlation studies because sometimes a double blind study is unethical, and double blind studies is the bar for establishing causation in the medical community. We cannot give one person randomly worse air to breath, and even if it were experimentally feasible it would be ethically impossible because there is strong suspicion we would be harming the subjects. Let’s discuss the actual data. The dose dependent result that was found is an indicator of a strong relationship. There is a clear potential mechanism of action (Air -> Lungs -> Bloodstream -> Brain). This isn’t a controversial result in the literature, it’s more evidence for what we already know —- air pollution is very bad.
- dynm 1y agoYou seem to be responding as if I claimed that population-level correlational studies are bad, or that I claimed that air pollution is not bad for you. But I did not claim either of those things. What I claimed is that this press release takes a population-level correlational study and presents it in a misleading way that implies causation was established. Which this press release most certainly does.
- bitmasher9 1y ago
- neom 1y agoAnyone knowledgable on this research area able to enlighten me on how pesticides are included (nor not) in these air particulate studies? In my head PM studies are primality focused on combusted stuff? Do pesticides factor into PM readings in a geography? I ask because I seem to recall there being some articles linking pesticides to dementia/Parkinson.
- jl6 1y agoDo we see reducing rates of dementia in cities like London which have dramatically improved their air quality over the last ~80 years?
- eweise 1y agoI wonder if forest firefighters have increased dementia.
- jamesblonde 1y agoThere are around 50k public air quality sensors globally that publish pm2.5 measurements. Still, there are no good air quality forecasts. In my two home cities (Dublin and Stockholm), there are 30-50 public sensors. The first exercise in my O'Reilly book (released next month) is to build a pm25 forecast using basic ML (features are weather and lagged air quality). Code is available here: https://github.com/featurestorebook/mlfs-book/ https://github.com/featurestorebook/mlfs-book/
- saddat 1y agoSo … Beijing , Mumbai or Uulanbaatar habitants will face grim future ? Idk there are cities with decades of terrible air with PM25 way above 200 , but I never hear of such drastic developments ?
- selimthegrim 1y agohttps://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01776 https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01776