According to WHO Ethiopian Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, let’s poison millions of children with exhaust fumes and ruin their lives. They are increasingly suffering from asthma and respiratory infections, from which, according to WHO studies, more than 600,000 children under the age of 5 years died in 2016 alone. “Air pollution is one of the greatest threats to children’s health,” states the WHO. According to their study, every tenth death among under-five year olds worldwide is due to polluted air.

Air pollution, particularly prevalent in cities and metropolitan areas, has been shown to have detrimental effects on prenatal and postnatal brain development, according to research by Amedeo D’Angiulli, senior neuroscientist at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

There is also a direct relationship between air pollution and the need for psychiatric medication in children and adolescents. In other words, city life makes you mentally ill. The exposure of children’s lungs to fine dust and nitrogen oxides on the way to school or while playing in the city park has also been shown to inhibit the development of the brain and reduce academic success in the long term.

Particulate matter leads to many physiological regulatory disorders and increases blood pressure. Filters against fine dust in the home, which is caused by candlelight, cooking or baking, therefore lower blood pressure significantly by up to 7.5 points. In this way, physical and mental fitness could be improved in the long term without any side effects and one could protect oneself from vascular dementia. In the long term, such filters would even prevent Alzheimer’s, since fine dust also directly impairs hippocampal function.

Insgesamt ist die zunehmende Luftverschmutzung somit ein wesentlicher Grund für den globalen Rückgang der durchschnittlichen mentalen Leistungsfähigkeit bzw. Intelligenz, aber auch dafür, dass manisch-depressive Erkrankungen und schwere Depressionen häufiger werden. Auch der Anstieg an Alzheimer hat eine Ursache in der zunehmenden Feinstaubbelastung.

Quelle “Das erschöpfte Gehirn”, Michael Nehls

Lack of exercise, smoking, a lot of stress: It has long been known that these and other factors promote heart attacks. However, the population is hardly aware of another, largely invisible danger: polluted air. Pollutants enter the airways, can lead to chronic pneumonia and put a heavy strain on the heart.

Quelle Tagesspiegel