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According to a new study, people living in polluted areas with long-term exposure to even comparatively low levels of poor air quality are more likely to develop depression and anxiety.
Though most people would associate air pollution with the lungs, a new study has highlighted the impact it can also have on the mind.
Writing for the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry, researchers have uncovered that long-term exposure to even comparatively low levels of poor air quality can cause depression and anxiety.
The finding adds to a wave of evidence that fossil fuels may be negatively affecting mental health and suggests a need for stricter standards or regulations for air pollution control across the globe.
‘This study provides further evidence on potential impacts of air pollution on the brain to support a lowering of legal limits to air pollution,’ says Anna Hansell, a professor of environmental epidemiology, who was not involved in the research.
‘It found associations between air pollution and anxiety and depression in the UK, which experiences lower air pollution than many countries worldwide.’
To reach this conclusion, authors tracked the incidence of depression and anxiety in almost 390,000 UK adults over 11 years.
Data from the UK Biobank further investigated the effect of air pollution, which included PM2.5 and PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and nitric oxide.
They found 13,131 cases of depression and 15,835 of anxiety were identified and discovered the condition to be most severe in the presence of pollutants including fine particulate matter, nitric oxide, and nitrogen dioxide. These are commonly emitted into the air when oil and gas is burned for vehicles, power plants, construction equipment, and industrial work.
