Air Pollution Health Effects - New Findings

According to a new study, air pollution could be responsible for causing headaches and migraines.  The study was carried out in Santiago, Chile, where the mountainous terrain traps air pollutants.  On days when the air pollution was especially high, more people sought medical attention for headaches and migraines than on other days, the researchers behind the study said, adding that additional research would be needed to develop the theory beyond the Chilean capital. 

The new study appears in the current edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology, and uses data compiled from seven different sites over a four-year period beginning in 2001.  The air pollutants assessed included the following:

• Carbon Monoxide
• Ozone
• Sulphur Dioxide
• Nitrogen
• Various Particulate Matter (produced as a result of industrial fossil fuel incineration)

The researchers looked at this data in tandem with hospital records covering the same four years, and found a clear link between air pollution and headaches.  They noted that factors such as the time of year, or the sex or age of the person with the headache, had no real bearing on the results. 

Health and Air Pollution

In light of the study’s results, the researchers – Dr. Sabit Cakmak among them – are urging for head-associated conditions (like migraines) to be taken into account in future medical or financial assessments of health and air pollution.

In related news, a separate study has forged a tentative link between air pollution and dementia.  This one forms part of the publication Environmental Research, and highlights an assessment that took place in Germany.  The assessment involved approximately 400 elderly women whose ages ranged from 68 to 79 and who had not moved house for two decades or more.  What was found from memory tests carried out on these women was that the worst results were produced by those who lived closest to busy roads (defined as those use by in excess of 10,000 vehicles daily). 

“These results indicate that chronic exposure to traffic-related PM [particulate matter] may be involved in the development of mild cognitive impairment and since mild cognitive impairment is a transition state between normal ageing and dementia, more research should be conducted with these women”, the study stated.