Just weeks after EPA tightened its annual soot standard, a new study adds to the evidence linking long-term exposure to the common pollutant to a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
For the study, published online this week in the journal Neurology, researchers sampled brain tissue from 224 donors who died before 2020. The results showed that those who had been more exposed to traffic-related air pollution around their homes were more likely to have high amounts of protein clumps associated with Alzheimer’s, according to a summary. The association was particularly strong among donors who lacked a gene variant connected to Alzheimer’s.
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Neurolog
according to a summary
“Future studies should further investigate the biological mechanisms behind this association,” the researchers, primarily based at Emory University, wrote in the paper.
The study specifically examined levels of soot, which is more technically known as fine particulate matter or PM 2.5, because individual specks or droplets are no bigger than 2.5 microns in diameter or one-thirtieth the width of a human hair. Direct and indirect sources can range from coal-fired power plant emissions to tailpipe exhaust.
