United States: A new study suggests that the increasing wildfires linked to climate change could negatively impact future brain health.
Researchers reported at the Alzheimer’s Association annual meeting in Philadelphia that smoke from wildfires might increase the risk of dementia more than other types of air pollution.
The study found that even lower levels of exposure to wildfire smoke are linked with a higher risk of keeping it high compared to other air pollutants.
Exposure to Wildfire Smoke Increases Dementia Risk
“With the rising global incidence of wildfires, including in California and the western U.S., exposure to this type of air pollution is an increasing threat to brain health,” said Claire Sexton who is the senior director or can say the chairperson of scientific programs and outreach at the Alzheimer’s Association. “These findings underscore the importance of enacting policies to prevent wildfires and investigating better methods to address them.”

And the researchers found a 21 percent of increase in the odds of dementia diagnosis for each increase of 1 microgram per cubic meter in levels of particle pollution caused by this wildfire smoke researchers found.
As reported by HealthDay, if the comparison other forms the air pollution caused a 3 percent increased risk in the dementia diagnosis of every 3 microgram per cubic meter and increase in the airborne particulates.
Air Pollution from Wildfires vs. Other Sources
Wildfires, motor vehicles and the factories all spew a type of air pollution which is called fine particulate matter and these solid and the liquid particles are 30 times smaller than the width of an average human hair.
For this study the researchers have analysed the health records of more than 1.2 million Kaiser Permanente members living in the southern California.
All the participants were 60 or older almost between 2009 and 2019 and none had been treated with dementia at the start of the study.
The researchers and the health experts have compared these patients with air quality records which is typically gathered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Experts Urge Policy Changes
“Previous research has found that exposure to [particle pollution] is associated with dementia, but in light of our large, long-term study, it’s apparent the risk from exposure due to wildfire smoke is an even bigger concern,” said lead researcher Dr. Holly Elser, who is a neurology resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
“Air pollution produced by wildfires now accounts for more than 70% of total (particle pollution) exposure on poor air quality days in California,” Elser added in an Alzheimer’s Association news release. “This is a real problem.