A study has found that a person’s ability to focus on everyday tasks is affected by short-term exposure to air pollution.
Researchers analysed data from cognitive tests completed by 26 participants before and after they were exposed either to high levels of particulate matter (PM) using smoke from a candle, or clean air for an hour.
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, found that even brief exposure to high concentrations of PM affected participants’ selective attention and emotion recognition – regardless of whether they breathed normally or just through their mouth. This can affect an individual’s ability to concentrate on tasks, avoid distractions and behave in a socially appropriate way.
“Participants exposed to air pollution were not as good at avoiding the distracting information, said Dr Thomas Faherty of the University of Birmingham, a co-author of the study. “So that means in daily life, you could get more distracted by things. Supermarket shopping is a good example … it might mean that you get more distracted by impulse buys when you’re walking along supermarket aisles because you’re not able to focus on your task goals.”
Among other things, the study also found that participants performed worse on cognitive tests evaluating emotional recognition after being exposed to PM air pollution.
Read also: Renowned climate scientist says climate change target of 2C is ‘dead’
“They were worse at perceiving whether a face was fearful or happy, and that might have implications for how we behave with other people,” Faherty said. “There are associative studies looking at short-term air pollution and incidents of things like violent crime, especially in US cities. So you could kind of tentatively link those things together, possibly saying that the reason for that might be some kind of emotional dysregulation.”
The study found that participants’ working memory was not affected, indicating that some brain functions are more resilient to short-term pollution exposure than others. Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental risk factors to public health globally. The World Health Organization has estimated that outdoor air pollution causes about 4.2 million premature deaths a year worldwide.
Researchers say the findings of the study could have significant societal and economic implications, including for educational attainment and work productivity.
“The study was done on a clinically healthy adult population, which means that they were of good health and had no clinical respiratory or neurological problems … certain other groups might be more vulnerable to effects,” Faherty said.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
