Birmingham is one of the sootiest cities in the United States. The American Lung Association has rated Birmingham as a high soot region for years. Soot is particulate pollution.
Birmingham businesses have been allowed by the state government to exceed the EPA limits for air pollutants by as much as seven percent while the state of Alabama pursues a lawsuit against the Clean Air and Water Act.
A very high correlation between particulate pollution and cognitive decline in women was reported in new research published in the February 13, 2012, issue of the journalArchives of Internal Medicine indicates
Long term exposure to coarse (2.5-10 microns in diameter) and fine (smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter) articulate matter was associated with a faster rate of cognitive decline in 19,409 women ages 70 to 81 for a 14-year period going back as far as 1988. The study group was a subset of the Nurses' Health Study Cognitive Cohort.
The lack of response to obesity prevention campaigns in Birmingham (rates of obesity increased in 2011 versus 2010) could well be correlated with a cognitive decline caused by long term pollution. Obese people that have been exposed to high PM environments for decades may not have the cognitive ability to respond positively to the obesity prevention programs that are available in Birmingham.
Jennifer Weuve, MPH., ScD, assistant professor of the Rush Institute of Healthy Aging, led the investigation along with Robin Puett, MPH, PhD of University of Maryland School of Public Health, Joel Schwartz, PhD, and Francine Laden, MS, ScD, and Francine Grodstein, ScD, of the Harvard School of Public Health, and Jeff Yanosky, MS, ScD of Penn State University College of Medicine. The research was reviewed at the Eureka Alert web site on February 13, 2012.
Comments