Air pollution does more than cause asthma; it damages the brain, say Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Campus in an article in the MCS America Newsletter, February 2011."While it is well known that air pollution affects human health through cardiovascular and respiratory morbidity and mortality, it has only recently been shown that these deleterious effects extend to the brain," says researcher Michelle Block, "Air pollution has been implicated as a chronic source of neuroinflammation and reactive oxygen species that produce neuropathology and central nervous system disease."
Stroke, Alzheimer´s, and Parkinson´s disease have all been linked to air pollution. Changes in the blood-brain barrier are a key component in the way air pollution affects the brain and central nervous system. When the blood-brain barrier becomes more permeable, pollution has greater access to the brain.
Block dates back the first instance of the impact of air pollution upon the brain being noted with an increase in ischemic stroke frequency found in individuals exposed to indoor coal fumes.
It is believed that air pollution leads to cerebral vascular damage, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration through four routes. First, air pollution leads to systemic inflammation, second, ultrafine particles have easier access to systemic circulation and, thus, the brain. Third, nanoparticles provide toxicants an ideal entry to the brain and finally, ozone, when inhaled reacts with proteins and lipids to generate modifications, free radicals, and toxic compounds.
Block says that air pollution contains both particulate matter and gases and is not limited to industrial emissions. Indoor air is considered more contaminated as compared to the outdoor air with Pesticides, air "fresheners", cleaning products, plastics, and formaldehyde from furniture and clothing comprising major indoor air pollutants.
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