Air Pollution Emerges As a Direct Risk Factor For Alzheimer's Disease 34
Longtime Slashdot reader walterbyrd shares a report from ABC News: In a study of nearly 28 million older Americans, long-term exposure to fine particle air pollution raised the risk of Alzheimer's disease. That link held even after researchers accounted for common conditions like high blood pressure, stroke and depression. Fine particle air pollution, known as PM2.5, consists of tiny particles in the air that come from car exhaust, power plants, wildfires, and burning fuels, according to the American Lung Association. They are small enough to travel deep into the lungs and even reach the bloodstream.
The research, conducted at Emory University and published in PLOS Medicine, tracked health data over nearly two decades to explore whether air pollution harms the brain indirectly by causing high blood pressure or heart disease, which, in turn, leads to dementia. However, these "middleman" conditions accounted for less than 5% of the connection between pollution and Alzheimer's, the research found. The researchers say this suggests that over 95% of the Alzheimer's risk comes from the direct impact of breathing in dirty air, likely through inflammation or damage to brain cells. "The relationship between PM2.5 and AD [Alzheimer's disease] has been shown to be pretty much linear," said Kyle Steenland, a professor in the departments of environmental health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and senior author of the study. "The reason this is particularly important is that PM2.5 is known to be associated with high blood pressure, stroke and depression -- all of which are associated with AD. So, from a prevention standpoint, simply treating these diseases will not get rid of the problem. We have to address exposure to PM2.5."
The research, conducted at Emory University and published in PLOS Medicine, tracked health data over nearly two decades to explore whether air pollution harms the brain indirectly by causing high blood pressure or heart disease, which, in turn, leads to dementia. However, these "middleman" conditions accounted for less than 5% of the connection between pollution and Alzheimer's, the research found. The researchers say this suggests that over 95% of the Alzheimer's risk comes from the direct impact of breathing in dirty air, likely through inflammation or damage to brain cells. "The relationship between PM2.5 and AD [Alzheimer's disease] has been shown to be pretty much linear," said Kyle Steenland, a professor in the departments of environmental health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and senior author of the study. "The reason this is particularly important is that PM2.5 is known to be associated with high blood pressure, stroke and depression -- all of which are associated with AD. So, from a prevention standpoint, simply treating these diseases will not get rid of the problem. We have to address exposure to PM2.5."
There's one good thing about alzheimer's... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:There's one good thing about alzheimer's... (Score:4, Insightful)
(I know you were not trying to be very serious, so don't take it as a criticism). My experience with relatives who were informal caregivers is more varied
In one case, my friend was the niece of the affected person, who supposedly had not met in a long time. The patient was therefore constantly (repeatedly) happy to rejoin with her long-lost niece.
In another case, the affected person was constantly concerned of not being in her house (she was in elderly care during the day), and being separated from her husband (already deceased). The disease had to be a confusing and stressful experience, being in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people for reasons she could not understand.
Say goodbye to the endangerment finding (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Say goodbye to the endangerment finding (Score:5, Interesting)
So this isn't about saving the planet in 20 years time, it's about saving American lives now:
"The team estimated that between 1999 and 2020, 460,000 deaths would not have occurred in the absence of emission from the coal power plants."
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/deaths-associated-pollution-coal-power-plants
Re: (Score:1)
The endangerment finding named in the link above is about carbon dioxide
Coal burning produces PM_2.5 pollutants (Score:3)
The endangerment finding named in the link [nih.gov] above is about particulate pollution (PM_2.5) and does not mention carbon dioxide. Quote:
Re: (Score:2)
I tease people about being anti-nuclear when coal and natural gas pump more radiation into the air than nuclear ever did, even from accidents. I still use natural gas for cooking, and I can't go outside without breathing coal pollution (the nearest power plant is coal). Sometimes I even use a coal grill.
Re: (Score:2)
radiation from coal represents a miniscule fraction of total annual exposure, estimated at less than 0.1% of total background radiation
Re: (Score:2)
And yet it is still considerably more than the dose from nuclear power.
Re: Say goodbye to the endangerment finding (Score:2)
I had no idea people would use a coal grill. That seems like it would be difficult to light and make the food taste awful compared to using charcoal.
You could of course have a coal hob, those used to be common in coal regions. Basically like a wood pot belly stove, you can heat and cook something on the top. The important thing is most of the smoke goes up the chimney instead of into your food.
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody seems to use a cokes grill.
Re:Say goodbye to the endangerment finding (Score:5, Interesting)
A lot of people did very well out of burning fossil fuels. I don't just mean the mine owners and oil companies, I mean a lot of ordinary people enjoyed cheap cheap energy. They really don't want that to change, and seem to think it did them no harm. They have also been convinced that renewables aren't cheaper, when they clearly are, and that electric stuff like cars and heat pumps don't work.
History is going to tell an almost unbelievable story of how millions were convinced to trash the planet. I thought my cat was an idiot for chewing up the carboard box he liked to live in, but here we are...
Re: (Score:3)
Fossil fuels are globally subsidised to the tune of $11 million every minute, according to the International Monetary Fund. That money has to come from somewhere, and there's no way in hell a billionaire is subsidising some soccer mum's SUV. Which mean that the money has to come out of taxes.
So it's not particularly cheap, net. It's just that the total cost is diffused across the food you buy, the house you own, the car tags, the money you earn. All of these different taxes contribute some percentage of the
Re: (Score:1)
This is bull. The figure of $11 million every minute includes about 90% implicit subsidies. Implicit subsidies are like saying "gas should cost $10 so it is subsidized by $7" There is no actual subsidizing happening in implicit subsidies.
Re: (Score:2)
would like to see a good citation.
Re: (Score:3)
As this exact discussion shows, implicit subsidies are a right wing idiot’s way of pretending that negative externalities aren’t a real thing, despite them being a completely standard part of economics. Morbidity and mortality associated with respiratory-caused AD has a very real cost, and we all have to bear it, when polluters should pay it.
Re: (Score:3)
Don’t be a dumbass. The repeals of the regulations for the endangerment finding directly shift incentives from activities that generate relatively lower quantities of PM2.5, such as the use of EVs and renewables, to activities that generate relatively much higher quantities, such as the use of big ICE vehicles and fossil fuel power generation.
Re: (Score:2)
So pollution is OK then? In fact you appear to support pollution. It's fine. It's a good thing.
Are you an idiot?
Stop breathing for 5 minutes and you will feel better.
Re: Stopped Trusting Medical Science after Covid L (Score:3)
Re: Stopped Trusting Medical Science after Covid L (Score:2)
Don't you have some street corner to be ranting on?
Re: (Score:2)
After the Science establishment got people fired for warning against Covid GE mRNA vaccines for saying that they kill people (calling us anti-vaxxers)
You're anti-vaxxers.
then later admitting that this was, in fact, the case, and was known all along
Even when injected with a placebo some people will have negative effects. Everyone but anti-vaxxers knows this. They're also all better at math.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Revisionist history. Everything is dangerous. Yes the vaccines can kill people and yes this was known all along. But the number are so miniscule and tiny compared to the number of people that died from Covid, that:
Only a total moron would avoid the vaccine.
You literally multiply your chance of death by 1,000 if you refuse the vaccine.
The problems is that anti-vaxxers (and YES, YOU ARE ONE), can't do basic math. It's like being told that last year a single 75 year old man drowned after drinking water, c
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, given that bending over backwards, you must be really good at yoga!
Now consider how many of that handful would have likely died of COVID anyway. The people who had adverse reaction to the shot were reacting to the very same protein that COVID itself would have flooded their systems with had they gotten COVID instead.
Enjoy your diet of horse paste and all-natural pork tapeworms.
I'll just be over here enjoying my COVID and measles free life.
Re: (Score:2)
Not like this is some yuge or unexpected news (Score:5, Informative)
Here's basically the same stuff from 5 years ago https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]
Also, a link to the study [plos.org], and not the interpretation of some half-educated journo and his chat-gpt friend is always appreciated.
all those people (Score:2)
Would smoking increase AD risk? (Score:2)
Seems like smoking, either tobacco or cannabis, would also increase AD risk.
Pathological science (Score:2)
The lookback on this is going to be brutal as everything causes dementia studies pile up. Just the other day it was people who don't drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee.
https://jamanetwork.com/journa... [jamanetwork.com]
There is quite a bit of evidence sedentary lifestyles are a significant contributor.
https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov]
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov]
Despite knowing this PM 2.5 studies continuously fail to control for lifestyle differences between urban and rural environments of whi
So what's the correlation? (Score:2)
OK, 2.5PM means particulate matter under 2.5 micrometers in size. They all list hazard ratios somewhere near 1.09, which I think means a 9% increased chance of Alzheimer's? But for what level of pollution? Why didn't they break out people who didn't have any of hypertension, stroke, or depression? The 95% number does NOT seem to mean 95% of Alzheimer's is due to 2.5PM, it's something like the effect of 2.5PM is independent of hypertension, stroke, and depression, maybe meaning it's 95% independent?
high conficence (Score:2)
With high confidence we can say that a small risk is slightly increased.