A recent study found that hospitalizations for dementia among people in the Southeast receiving Medicare increased about 5% for every 1 μg/m3 increase in the average yearly level of fine particle pollution (annual PM2.5). The increase was found in both rural and urban areas. The current EPA standard for annual PM2.5 is 12 μg/m3.
The researchers found a 3.6% increase in hospitalization for dementia for every 1 μg/m3 increase in the average annual PM2.5, and a 5.2% increase for urban areas. The link between annual PM2.5 and dementia was strongest for a specific kind of dementia known as vascular dementia, with an 8.6% increase for every 1 μg/m3 increase in the average annual PM2.5.
Fine particle pollution is not even across cities or states, and black and brown communities have the most exposure due to where our country’s environmental racism and where we decided to build highways and power plants. PM2.5 comes from power plants and other industrial facilities, traffic (cars, trucks and buses), other diesel equipment such construction vehicles or trains, some agricultural practices, and there are some natural sources, or wildfires which are made worse by our changing climate. Most of the PM2.5 air pollution comes from humans burning fuel for energy or transportation.
The researchers studied PM2.5 exposure and how different exposure levels affect hospitalizations for all dementia, and for specific kinds of dementia, for the year 2000-2013. There were 13 million people receiving Medicare in the Southeast during this time, and there were 1.4 million hospitalizations for dementia.
This study shows that if the annual PM2.5 standard is lowered from 12 to 10 μg/m3, we could potentially lower hospitalizations for dementia in the Southeast by almost 10%. If the standard is even lower, at 8 or 9 μg/m3, we could prevent even more hospitalizations. Remember that for every hospitalization for dementia, the person suffers mightily and their family goes through a lot of anguish about their loved one. And the suffering from dementia starts well before people are hospitalized for dementia. We would be so much healthier and better off with less air pollution, and we would also keep climate change from getting worse.
Read the study in Environmental Pollution here. (We’re sorry, we couldn’t find a regular news article about this study.)
08/24/2021
