Air pollution damage children brains. The more a child exposed to pollution at the age of five, the more structure of brain affected.
A new study shows that coverage to air pollution throughout pregnancy and the first eight and a half years of life can damage a child’s brain.
Study printed in the Journal of Environmental Pollution confirmed the relationship between air pollution and white matter in the brain.
Cerebral white matter markers ensure communication between diverse parts of the brain. This connectivity measured by seeing the fine structure of the white matter, a hallmark of brain development.
Experts from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, who managed the research, say the findings significant because abnormal white matter structures linked to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.
Research has shown that the more a child out to pollution at the age of five, the more the structure of the brain affected.
Researchers have found that exposure to pollutants such as dust, smoke or dirty liquid particles in the first two years of life rises the size of the outer part of the brain.
Expansion of the outer part of the brain associated with some psychiatric illnesses (schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorders), said institute researcher Anne Claire Pinter, who was also a co-author on the study.