New researchers raising important questions about the effect of air
pollution not only on our lungs but on our brains. It's what one
study called an urgent public health concern the issue. How much
into what extent are airborne contaminants linked to neurological
diseases like Alzheimer's? Jeffrey Brown has more
Research in this area has been building for years, with many links
now seen but much still uncertain. Dr. Deborah Corey selector, focuses
or studies on environmental health and the brain at the University
of Rochester Medical Center, and she joins us now. Thanks for being
with us, you know, you and others see a growing public health.
Issue here.
Explain the concern. I mean, how does air pollution impact the brain
and possibly lead to neurological disease?
Well, we've known that air pollution has effects on the heart and
the lung for a very long time. But it's really only been in about
the past 10 years that, uh, attention has been directed to its effects
on the brain. And over that period of time, there's been a growing
body of scientific evidence showing associations between exposures
to air pollution and a
A real wide variety of neurological diseases and disorders. It is
included neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, as well as, uh, neurodegenerative diseases
like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, etcetera how that's
happening. We still don't fully understand.
But the fact that it seems to have such a impact on such a variety
of neurological diseases and disorders suggests that instead of acting
on what are the real unique characteristics of each of those diseases
and disorders, air pollution is acting on the features that are shared
across these neurological diseases and disorders. Well, so to be
clear at this stage, it's a it's a question of Association of pollution.
Mm.
To neurological problems, but not yet clear causation is that fair?
I I think there is a growing body of experimental data linking or
directly showing causal relationships. Air pollution is a very complicated
exposure. It's really a mixture of gasses and particles, and those
particles carry other toxins on them. Metals and organics that get
into the brain. And so what? We really don't understand One of the
things we don't understand is
What are the contaminants that are getting into the brain via those
air pollution particles that are responsible for these neurological
diseases and disorders? As you're studying this, who do you consider
most at risk, whether it's by age or by living conditions or geography?
Who are you? Most worried about?
Well, I think we don't fully have the answers to that yet. So one
of the things we don't yet understand. With respect to, for example,
neurodevelopmental disorders is what is the period of greatest vulnerability?
Um, is it preconception or is it in utero? 1st 2nd 3rd trimester
early brain development. We don't know the answers.
And with respect to neurodegenerative diseases. One has to remember
that this is actually a lifetime exposures are neurodegenerative
diseases being caused by a cumulative exposure over the lifetime,
or is it exposures that are occurring later? As maybe the blood brain
barrier begins to break down gets a little bit leaky. We don't have
answers to those questions. As of yet, we really need to understand
what the contaminants are.
That are in air pollution that are causing these because then we
could go and basically set regulatory policies that might assist
and preventing those exposures. Are there things you do advise to
individuals to in terms of behavior or care in this regard? Well,
I don't know that there's much an individual can do. This is really
going to be at a national level. We do regulate right now. Levels
of air pollution with specifically what we call PM, 2.5.
Seven PM 10. Those are particle sizes, but we know that it's actually
the smallest particle size the ultra fine particles the nanoparticles
that are the most problematic. They are the what carry those toxicants
into the body.
And we don't regulate those right now. We don't have a system in
place to fully
assess the data of those kinds of exposures, and so a lot more effort
is going to be needed to address this ultra fine particle component.