A recent study involving 8,500 children from different states found that 9 and 10 year olds are more likely to have inadequate learning and memory skills as a result of an air pollution that is largely the result of agricultural pollution. The particular pollution, nitrogen oxide, is also implicated in Alzheimer’s and dementia risk in individuals, suggesting that PM2.5 may induce cognitive damage across the duration.
A new USC study involving 8, 500 children from across the nation reveals that a form of air pollutants, largely the product of agricultural pollution, is linked to poor learning and memory achievement in 9- and 10-year-olds.
The particular portion of fine particle air pollutants, or PM2.5, nitrogen oxide, is also implicated in Alzheimer’s and dementia danger in adults, suggesting that PM2.5 may induce cognitive damage across the life-span. Ammonium salt aspects when acid oil and acetic acid, produced by agricultural actions and fossil fuel combustion, both, react in the environment.
The results appear in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Megan Herting, an associate professor of community and public health science at USC, said,” Our study emphasizes the need for more thorough research on particulate matter resources and chemical pieces.” It asserts that being aware of these details is essential for influencing air quality regulations and determining long-term neurocognitive effects.
Herting has been using data from the most extensive brain study in the country, known as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, to understand how PM2.5 might impact the brain.
PM2.5, a key indicator of air quality, is a mixture of dust, soot, organic compounds and metals that come in a range of particle sizes less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. PM2.5 can travel deep into the lungs, where these particles can pass into the bloodstream, and bypass the blood-brain barrier, causing serious health problems.
Fossil fuel combustion is one of the largest sources of PM2.5, especially in urban areas, but sources like wildfires, agriculture, marine aerosols and chemical reactions are also important.
In 2020, Herting and her colleagues published a paper in which they looked at PM2.5 as a whole, and its potential impact on cognition in children, and did not find a relationship.
For this study, they used special statistical techniques to look at 15 chemical components in PM2.5 and their sources. Ammonium nitrate in the air, which is typically produced as a result of agricultural and farming operations, came into view as a prime suspect that day.
The most conclusive finding, according to Herting, was that ammonium nitrate particles were linked to poorer learning and memory, regardless of how we examined it, whether on its own or with other pollutants. ” That suggests that overall PM2.5 is one thing, but for cognition, it’s a mixture effect of what you’re exposed to”.
The researchers want to examine how these different sources and mixtures may influence individual brain phenotypes as they age and develop in their upcoming project.
In addition to Herting, other study authors include Rima Habre, Kirthana Sukumaran, Katherine Bottenhorn, Jim Gauderman, Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez, Rob McConnell and Hedyeh Ahmadi, all of the Keck School of Medicine, Daniel A. Hackman of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, Kiros Berhane of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Shermaine Abad of University of California, San Diego, and Joel Schwartz of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health]NIEHS R01ES032295, R01ES031074, P30ES007048] and the Environmental Protection Agency]RD 83587201, RD 83544101].
