A public health concern
“Adverse effects of airborne toxic pollutants associated with amyloid-beta pathology should be considered in public health policy decisions and should inform individual lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” they concluded.
Dr. Iaccarino noted that, although governments need to take primary action in reducing air pollution, individuals can make some changes to reduce their exposure to poor-quality air.
“Such changes could include not going out or using masks when pollution levels are very high (as happened recently in California with the wildfires) and avoiding areas where the air quality is known to be bad. In addition, there are activities which increase indoor air pollution which can be changed, such as certain types of cooking, cigarette smoking, use of coal fires,” he commented.
“Based on our findings, it would be reasonable to take action on these things, especially for individuals at higher risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease or Alzheimer’s,” he added.
On a more optimistic note, Dr. Iaccarino pointed out that air quality in the United States has improved significantly in recent years. Meaningful improvements were found between the two periods in this analysis study (2002-2016), “so we are going in the right direction.”
The IDEAS Study was funded by the Alzheimer’s Association, the American College of Radiology, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, GE Healthcare, and Life Molecular Imaging. Dr. Iaccarino has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article originally appeared on Medscape.com.