
Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia - howard941
https://www.wired.com/story/air-pollution-dementia/
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siliconunit
As far as anecdotes go, since I moved to London I noticed a sharp decrease in
memory performance, heavy hair loss, and a general feeling of unhealthiness,
developed a random persistent cough as well. The fact that you can always see
a heavy haze even in short tube tunnels tells a lot on the air quality, the
last underground cleaning train stopped working in the eighties...very
unhealthy place to live/work in my opinion.

~~~
jvanderbot
I experienced patchy hair loss after moving to Los Angeles. This "childhood
disease" does not run in my family, and I've never had it before. I'm 38 and
moved here two years ago.

I have come to suspect systemic inflation from the rampant pollution in LA
caused my new autoimmune disease, or at worst exacerbated a condition I never
experienced symptoms of before.

~~~
xiphias2
Are you sure it's an autoimmune disease? For me when I went to uninhabited
islands for example, the symptoms of my illness went away completely.

I believe the problem is that my body is not able to metabolize the toxic air
molecules that gets to my bloodstream through my lungs.

~~~
jvanderbot
It was diagnosed autoimmune. I have pictures of white blood cells attacking my
hair follicles.

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WhompingWindows
I went to an Alzheimer's Conference recently and there was an hour-long talk
about air pollution and dementia.

1) The title of this article is bad. In epidemiologic terms, you shouldn't
combine the words "seem" and "cause". Seem is about perception, is about
possibility, whereas any science writer or epi researcher worth their salt is
NOT going to use the term "cause" lightly. There may be an association, a
correlation, a linkage even, but cause? No no, dementia is a very broad
disease with many potential causes, and likely you will never establish a
singular cause for that disease.

2) Regarding the talk I attended itself, there is a wildly broad definition of
air pollution out there. Are you talking about ozone, NOx, or particulate
matter, and what SIZE of particulate matter? How do you measure lifetime
exposure or recent exposure for those moving, and for the dynamic process that
is air quality? Then, how do you control for community and cultural based
effects of living in certain areas - maybe those with other risk factors are
also those forced by poverty/etc. to live in the polluted areas.

Summarily, IMHO, air pollution is a contributing factor to dementia, but alone
I doubt it'd be sufficient without age-related degeneration, unhealthy diet,
lack of exercise, stress, underlying genetics/alleles/mutations, etc. There
are probably around 10-20 important factors of which air pollution is one.

As a society, let's ditch ICE vehicles, let's ditch coal and dirty industrial
practices, both for our planet and for our own health.

What can you do now? Stop idling your car, use your brakes as little as
possible (i.e. drive efficiently, don't speed up just to have to brake soon),
don't go out in hot summer weather, support renewable energy, oppose
coal/dirty diesel/inefficient fossil fuel use, and generally vote for
politicians who agree with the above and don't take dirty fossil money.

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harlanji
I definitely notice myself degrading since becoming homeless last year, and
its like everything I'm newly subjected to causes dementia and Alzheimers--
brake dust, poor air quality, plaque in gums. I lived outside during the wild
fires, and I mostly sleep near intersections. (And the homeless must suck it
up and compete in the fair market without complaint!)

I documented myself on a YouTube channel as I could sense homelessness
looming, and have been keeping pretty extensive logs so that it won't be
assumed that I became homeless due to my degraded state when they find my body
(post hoc ergo propter hoc).

I remember how kindly people treated dogs during the wildfires. With all luck,
I'll be as intelligent as a dog soon.

~~~
2Ccltvcm
Plaque in gums is an extremely serious issue that you need to resolve
immediately. You can develop many chronic illnesses and deteriorate rapidly If
you do not resolve that. If you can't afford a dentist here get a bus ticket
to Yuma and walk across the border.

Brake dust is gnarly stuff for your health.

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jamescostian
> Both of these studies estimated that around 6 to 7 percent of all dementia
> cases in their samples could be attributed to air pollution exposures

Is it just me or does this seem very flimsy? Sounds like this model catches
very few cases, and there is no mention in TFA of how many false positives
were found. The quasi-causal study sounds a bit better, but judging by how
much the article seems to have overplayed the correlational studies, I have a
feeling the quasi-causal study isn't that good either

~~~
creaghpatr
Hence the word "seems". It's like science but without the rigor.

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hattar
What is going on with all the air pollution articles hitting HN this week?
This is the 4th(?) I’ve seen in about 3 days. Any tech topic and I might not
think about it, but air purification doesn’t really seem to be the kind of
topic I’d expect to see so much here.

~~~
darepublic
A lot of HN news has to do with improving/preserving cognition, that's the
connection that I see.

~~~
_bxg1
Also science in general, and the betterment of society.

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2sk21
Most of India is suffering under extremely high levels of particulate
pollution - I wonder how this is going to start affecting the population
there, especially as life expectancy is increasing.

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vwcx
Check out the coal and diesel haze over Mongolia in winter. This first video
is brutal:
[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/mongo...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/mongolia-
air-pollution/)

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minikites
Lead in particular is nasty and still in use for aviation fuel:

>the most commonly used grades of avgas still contain tetraethyllead (TEL), a
toxic substance used to prevent engine knocking (detonation), with ongoing
experiments aimed at eventually reducing or eliminating the use of TEL in
aviation gasoline

~~~
stephen_g
Definitely, but it’s worth noting for people who are unfamiliar - avgas isn’t
jet fuel - it’s only used in small piston planes, not anything with turbine
engines. It’s still a problem because there are plenty of that kind of
aircraft, but most commercial aviation isn’t using leaded fuel.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
>It’s still a problem because there are plenty of that kind of aircraft,

Yeah. But those aircraft don't tend to inhabit the airspace around cities.
Pretty much all small commercial aviation in the lower 48 is going to be
running turboprops that use normal jet fuel (basically diesel). A suburban
airport that actually has a meaningful GA presence is going to put far more
lead into the air.

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purplezooey
"...and found that those who lived closer to major high-traffic roads..."

I mean, that's kind of broad.

~~~
veritas_veritad
broad in specific cause, yes- "living near high traffic causes dementia" would
be a more suitable headline in your opinion?

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beenBoutIT
Dementia is the new cancer in that it's basically caused by everything and yet
most people manage to avoid it entirely.

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ErotemeObelus
Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia in Rust.

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netwanderer3
According to the evolution theory, eventually our DNA will evolve to adapt to
its external environment so does this mean given enough daily exposure over
many generations, at some time in a distant future our immune system will no
longer consider those particles as foreign and thus will not fight to
eliminate it? There would be no dementia by then if it was indeed caused by
inflammation triggered by the immune system. I know this sounds pretty stupid
but human bodies are weird machines still not fully understood by today
science. If some people within the same race could be allergic to certain
types of food that are completely safe to others without any proper
explanations (eggs, peanuts, etc...) then anything is possible. I'm sure there
are people out there who live to 90 without getting dementia even in heaviest
polluted cities.

~~~
iforgotpassword
Yes and no. Evolution theory would require those who get dementia to go
extinct. Usually by the time you develop dementia, you already reproduced, so
even if some people become "immune" to pollution, the others won't get removed
from the gene pool.

~~~
netwanderer3
This is an interesting angle. Next generation will pretty much be exposed to
pollution by the moment they're born. Technically their kids will inherit a
slightly mutated version already even though it might not yet be enough. Does
our gene "remember" how much exposure it had accumulated from the previous
generation? We often hear from the news how they found some individuals who
were immune to certain diseases due to a specific genetic mutation. Your kids
don't carry the exact DNA as yours since it's a combination between a father
and a mother so it will always be a new mutation.

~~~
nitrogen
_Does our gene "remember" how much exposure it had accumulated from the
previous generation?_

Not as DNA. The main thing that controls evolution is failure to reproduce.
Life experiences have only a very short term effect on how DNA is packaged.

 _it will always be a new mutation_

A "mutation" is not the same thing as a "permutation". The combination of DNA
from two parents is not itself mutation.

