We know that polluted air can have a harmful impact on human health – but what about mental health, too?
You might think intuitively that breathing nasty air might make you feel more negative about your environment, but apparently it goes further than that.
A recent article at Phys.org examines a study published in PLOS ONE that involved Stanford University researchers looking at the impact of air pollution and reporting results.
They coin a term, affective sensitivity to air pollution (ASAP) that sounds a little bit like seasonal affective disorder (SAD); SAD is a mental and behavioral response to bad weather, or lack of sunlight.
Researching 150 people for a year, research teams found that their moods fluctuated with daily concentrations of air pollution locally.
An unnamed author at the Public Library of Science explains that researchers looked at two traits, arousal, or physiological activation, and valance, the positivity or negativity of moods, also noting that a full 90% of people all over the world breathe polluted air, according to the World Health Organization.
More Research on Air Pollution and Mental Health
That’s not the only source for this kind of research; going back to 2022, we have notes from Vivian Lam at The Conversation that explain collective research involving air pollution and the human brain.
The study notes that the three main areas affected are the hippocampus, the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.
“Exposure to air pollution is consistently linked to increased risk of internalizing disorders, such as anxiety and depression,” scientists write. “Anxiety and depression are the most common mental disorders across the globe and can increase an individual’s risk of suicide attempts and completion, adversely affect family and social relationships, and are associated with substantial individual and societal economic burden.”
Looking at the actual text of the document, we see that scientists were specifically targeting items like PM2.5, which we’ve written about quite a lot, and PM10. PM2.5 is caused by wildfires or industrial combustion or other sources. PM10 constitutes larger particles like sand and dust.
The study linked air pollution to various mental disorders quoted the same WHO statistic, but an even worse figure, 99% percent.
“A growing body of preclinical and human neuroimaging studies indicates that air pollution exposure may increase risk of internalizing psychopathology by altering frontolimbic brain regions,” they write. “These regions play a key role in stress responding and emotion regulation, and are implicated in the pathophysiology of internalizing disorders.”
Looking at particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, ozone, volatile organic chemical compounds and more, study researchers identified sources like factories, cars, and powerplants as generating much of the emissions that concern us.
What Can You Do?
Of course it’s possible to become involved in activism to fight air pollution on a larger level, and hold polluters accountable. There’s the general effort to decrease carbon emissions and other kinds of emissions in order to fight climate change and protect our environment.
Beyond that, you can change the quality of the indoor air in your home, installing air monitors and air purifiers.
The monitors will show you what’s present in your indoor air, and help you decide whether to place portable or home air purifiers inside your living space. Then you can choose to set up smaller machines in individual spaces, or run a whole home system over a longer term to handle all of the air that cycles through the building.
You can also take a look at new alternatives like filterless air purifier designs.
Let US Air Purifiers LLC™ help you to figure out what to buy, for confidence in your plan to clean your indoor air. We have the track record of experience and success guiding customers toward the machines that will work best for a particular space and plan. You have a lot of options! The machines that you choose will contribute to better quality of life and longevity in your home.