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HomeEnvironmentAir Quality's Surprising Impact on Our Emotional Well-Being

Air Quality’s Surprising Impact on Our Emotional Well-Being

Affective sensitivity to air pollution (ASAP) refers to how an individual’s mood or emotional state changes in response to daily variations in air pollution levels, with this sensitivity differing from person to person, according to a recent study published on August 7, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Michelle Ng and her colleagues from Stanford University, USA.

Affective sensitivity to air pollution (ASAP) refers to how a person’s mood shifts according to daily changes in air quality, and this sensitivity can differ among individuals, as identified in a study released on August 7, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Michelle Ng from Stanford University, USA, and her team.

People’s sensitivity to climate-related risks plays a crucial role in their vulnerability to climate change. Building on established links between air pollution exposure and negative mental health outcomes, Ng and her colleagues introduce the concept of ASAP and explain how it can be measured using detailed longitudinal data. They specifically employed statistical approaches on extensive repeated measures data collected from 150 US individuals over the course of more than a year. The aim was to investigate how daily emotional states were affected by the daily levels of outdoor air pollution in their local area. They analyzed two aspects of an individual’s emotional state: arousal, which indicates their level of physiological activation, and valence, which describes whether their mood is positive or negative.

The study demonstrated that it’s possible to utilize air pollution data from local monitoring stations together with psychological assessments to evaluate individuals’ ASAP. The findings revealed that individuals experienced lower than normal levels of emotional arousal on days when air pollution was above average. More importantly, significant variations in ASAP were evident among different individuals.

The discovery that daily fluctuations in mood can be disrupted by air pollution carries important implications. For instance, ASAP may partly clarify how exposure to air pollution heightens the long-term risks for adverse mental health issues, including anxiety and depression. Furthermore, if air pollution dampens a person’s emotional state, this suppression might relate to reduced action on climate issues.

The researchers note that ASAP can be utilized to enhance the consideration of emotional and mental health factors in climate adaptation strategies. This includes informing assessments of climate vulnerability and creating personalized interventions to support emotional well-being in relation to exposure to air pollution.

The authors emphasize: “According to the World Health Organization, 90% of the global population breathes air that fails to meet its standards for acceptable air quality. We propose a tailored concept named ‘affective sensitivity to air pollution’ based on our observation that individuals significantly differ in how their emotional states vary with their daily air pollution exposures.”