Air pollution may directly contribute to Alzheimers

theconversation.com

6 points·lonelyasacloud··3 comments

Surely this would show up in pre and post London smog rates of disease? Or into the future with high EV cities and a drop in PM2.5? One is reassessment of past mortality bills the other is future intergenerational epidemiology.

The lead petrol thing took a while to establish. This may too.

What's Altzheimer rates like in India? Heaps of exposure and now emerging middle class so less use of charcoal overall but still high rates of (childhood) exposure.

Gas cooking is ubiquitous. Lots of new builds have only recirculating exhausts.

The study was on those over 65, so in terms of London smog and India; life expectancies lower so maybe if data available similar signals might be very difficult/impossible to detect.

> Or into the future with high EV cities and a drop in PM2.5?

We can hope but - tire wear produces similar sized micro plastic pollution [0] and electric cars are heavier and are likely to produce more of them [1]. Add into mix that chemically different make up and who knows [2]

[0] e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/03/car-tyre... [2]

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13522...

[2] e.g https://newatlas.com/environment/tire-particles-swimming-abn...

Fine particles long linked to heart and lung disease … large US study suggests also raises risk of Alzheimer’s …

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