Air Pollution is Linked to Cognitive Decline in Older Black Americans
This made me so sad.
A new study investigating the correlation between breathing in fine particulate matter (PM2.5), or soot, and brain health, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Behavior & Socioeconomics of Aging on May 18, found that 10+ years of exposure to PM2.5 is associated with lower semantic memory. This is the long-term memory system that stores concepts, facts, vocabulary, and how these things may relate to one another, acquired through everyday life. Since this is the part of our brain that helps us understand language, how to communicate, and share our ideas, when it becomes impaired, it fractures how people perceive reality.
The Backdrop:
The study found no measurable effects of PM2.5 on verbal episodic memory or executive function.
The average participant age was 68.7, and all identified as Black, and all live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Black people are more likely to be exposed to air pollution and more likely to suffer adverse health outcomes because of it.
More research is needed, as always! From the study authors: “Our findings contribute to a growing but still inconsistent literature on air pollution and domain-specific cognition, particularly in racially and ethnically diverse cohorts.”
The findings in the new study are particularly relevant right now, as Trump’s EPA is planning to roll back regulations that protect communities from PM2.5. In 2024, under the Biden Administration, the EPA set stronger PM2.5 standards. A little more than a year later, under Trump, the EPA asked the court to vacate those protections and reinstate the 2020 rule, which allowed higher levels of soot in the air and created more adverse public health consequences.
In 2017 and 2018, during the first Trump Administration, I reported on the respiratory effects of fine particulate matter on the Parramore neighborhood in Orlando. Jacqueline Young, who lived in Griffin Park, a federal housing project surrounded by two major highways, for 15 years, dealt with a sore throat, and her granddaughter had violent asthma attacks. The AC unit in her apartment spat out dust, forcing her to keep the windows open, which let soot from the highways float in. Marita Wilson, who was 70 when we spoke, said her apartment was often covered in dust, and she also dealt with asthma and allergies. She also attributed it to pollution. Latoya Lee was able to move her family to a different part of the neighborhood, which, sadly, sat next to a superfund site. Lee, who passed shortly before this story was published, was troubled by respiratory issues. Her loved ones attributed her death from cardiac arrest to the air she was breathing. (Note: In the years since this was published, the highway expansion further into the neighborhood was halted, and several years after that, the remaining residents of Griffin Park were relocated.)
It’s upsetting to see a new layer added to the continued carnage of history and policy.
Healthy Futures is free to read and always will be. Paid subscribers get Wellness Debrief, The Shelf, and a few paid essays per month. If you’re not ready for that but want to support the work, you can also leave a tip via PayPal.