New Delhi, For Delhiites, the health cost of breathing polluted air may go beyond coughing, breathlessness and heart problems, with a Delhi University review suggesting that prolonged exposure to fine particulate matter could also affect the brain.
Much of the existing evidence concerns structural and cognitive changes rather than confirmed cases of diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. “Air pollution is no longer only a lung and heart problem; it is increasingly a brain-health problem. These structural changes have been associated with problems in memory, attention and executive functions such as planning and decision-making, the study adds. The researchers caution that such findings should not be interpreted as proof that air pollution alone causes neurological diseases. Research on prenatal and early-life exposure has also linked pollution exposure with impaired cognitive development and lower intelligence scores in children. For Delhi, where exposure to particulate pollution can be a recurring part of daily life, the research adds another dimension to the city’s air pollution problem, suggesting that the impact of polluted air may not always be immediately visible and could extend to the brain over prolonged exposure.
Researchers said PM2.5 can trigger inflammation and oxidative stress, affect the energy-producing system of brain cells and interfere with the blood-brain barrier, which normally protects the brain from harmful substances.
Research now links long-term particulate-matter exposure with cognitive decline, impaired neurodevelopment and biological processes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases,” Vandana Mishra, one of the researchers associated with the study, said. “A growing body of evidence strongly demonstrates that chronic exposure to ambient air pollution, particularly PM, leads to region-specific structural and functional alterations in the human brain, spanning across developmental and ageing stages,” the study says.
