Study: Air pollution is bad for your brain

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A new study has found a new way in which air pollution is doing damage to all of us.

It’s attacking our brains.

The study has alarming findings on what happens to our minds when we’re surrounded by poor air quality for too long.

It’s been known for years that air pollution can damage lungs, but the study shows dirty air can also be bad for brains as well.

Researchers at the International Food and Policy Research Institute examined data from a Chinese study that laid out the cognitive test scores of roughly 32,000 people between 2010 and 2014 against their exposure to long and short-term air pollution.

Researchers found that the more a person was exposed to air pollution, the lower their math and verbal test scores were.

The decline in the findings was worse in less educated and older men.

Study findings also indicated that dementia and Alzheimer’s disease could develop out of high exposure to pollution.

The World Health Organization estimates that 90 percent of the world’s population breathes highly polluted air--Asia and Africa being the most polluted regions.

Back here at home, there are plenty of ways to avoid contributing to the pollution.

Ditching your car is one option: Louisville has recently developed several ways to get around town--bike shares, scooters and eco-friendly buses.

The city of Louisville maintains real time air quality monitoring on louisvillky.gov.

The most polluted cities found in the study were in developing countries.

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