Long-term exposure to one of the most prevalent types of air pollution may increase the risk of developing dementia, a debilitating neurological disease associated with memory loss and reduced cognitive function, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have concluded that people living with higher levels of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, could face a greater risk of being stricken with dementia, according to a study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.of nearly 28,000 people aged 50 or older living across the United States between 1998 and 2016. Fifteen percent of this group developed dementia, and those who lived in areas with more PM2.
The research is also concerning for Californians, who have seen their state ravaged by record-setting wildfires and drought that turned thousands of acres of farmland into dust bowls. "Just because particulate matter is perhaps increasing the permeability of the cell membrane, that does not necessarily mean that transfer of these antibiotic-resistant genes is going to happen," said Adam Smith, a USC professor who discovered bacteria in L.A. County wastewater that were resistant to colistin, a last-resort antibiotic.
Except for windblown dust, all other sources were correlated with higher dementia prevalence. Surprisingly, wildfires and farm dust had stronger ties to dementia prevalence than traffic pollution and coal combustion. "When you have wildfire smoke, you have these big complicated organic molecules that interact with metals very strongly and change their chemistry sometimes ... So that's why we think that things like wildfire smoke are particularly problematic."
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