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New Study Suggests Air Pollution May Harm IQ

NEWS

Chronic exposure to air pollution could negatively affect cognitive performance, a new study from China suggests.

COMMENT

There is now no doubt that air pollution contributes to the development of many serious health problems. In recent years, not only have studies linked air pollution to heart failure and kidney disease, a report on air quality from the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen, Denmark, found that it prematurely killed half a million people in Europe in 2014.

Clearly, therefore, so long as the fossil fuel industry and its government stakeholders remain addicted to the use of outdated energies such as oil, gas and coal, human health will continue to be held to ransom and the lives of millions of innocent people will be brought to a premature end. It is therefore essential that mankind moves away from these polluting fuels and, on a planetary scale, replaces them with safe, renewable forms of energy generation.

Meantime, until this happens, there are things we can do to protect ourselves from air pollution. A study from the United States published in 2017 found that high-dose B vitamins may “completely offset” the damage caused by the most dangerous type of air pollution. Published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, the researchers showed that exposure to fine particulate matter of the type produced by burning fossil fuels in motor vehicles can be mitigated by a daily supplement of B vitamins. Other research has shown that eating a Mediterranean diet may similarly protect against some of the harm of long-term exposure to air pollution. As these and other such studies demonstrate, the scientific basis for a world in which health is available to all is becoming increasingly apparent. If enough of us share this important information as widely as possible, we can immediately start saving millions of lives.

Read article on the BBC News website (UK)