United States: California’s wildfires have been growing in size and frequency, producing high amounts of smoke and contributing to what state boards call a “growing public health problem.”
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According to new research, long-term exposure to the current wildfire smoke is likely to impact brain health, significantly increasing the risk of dementia, as compared to other health pollutants.
According to the findings presented at the 2024 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Monday, data from more than 1.2 million people aged 60 and above were analyzed in Southern California from 2009 to 2019, as CNN Health reported.
The results under peer review were reported on Monday at the 2024 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
The scientists analyzed the impact of PM2.5, air pollution particles 2.5 microns or smaller in size, from wildfire smoke and other sources, like motor vehicles and factories.
The study led to a discovery of a stronger link between PM2.5 from wildfires and dementia diagnoses. Moreover, the odds of someone exposed to wildfire smoke being diagnosed with dementia increases by 21 percent for each person with one microgram of PM2.5 concentration per cubic meter of air over a three-year average.
On the other hand, the other sources of PM2.5 pollution caused the chance of dementia diagnosis to rise by 3 percent, with every increase of 3 micrograms per cubic meter of air over a three-year average.
According to the research, this link between smoke and dementia is more prominent among those who are racially and ethnically minoritized groups and in high-poverty areas.
As per Dr. Holly Elser, the paper’s presenting author and an epidemiologist and resident physician in neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, “There is quite a bit of prior literature that demonstrates an association between exposure to ambient air pollution and dementia, but there’s very limited research on how wildfire PM2.5, specifically, might be associated with dementia,” as CNN Health reported.
“As wildfire events become more intense and frequent and occur in places outside of the Western US, we felt this was an important, specific source of air pollution to consider as a potential risk factor for dementia,” Elser added.
Harms by PM2.5
As per the previous research, it is shown that those pollutants with high amounts of PM2.5 raise the danger of producing dementia, as well as other serious health problems, such as heart disease, asthma, and low birth weight.
According to Dr. Maria Carrillo, chief science officer and medical affairs lead at the Alzheimer’s Association, “When you breathe in [PM2.5], it actually gets absorbed into your bloodstream through your lungs,” as CNN Health reported.