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Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing
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Durham University report call for dementia risk to be included in UK air pollution policies

13 June 2023
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A wealth of research shows that air pollution is harming our brain health, including our mental health and our risk of dementia. A new report has outlined what we should do next.

Emerging research suggests exposure to high levels of air pollution at critical points in the life course is detrimental to brain health, including cognitive decline and dementia. Social determinants such as socio-economic deprivation, environmental factors, and heightened health and social inequalities also play a significant role and make the problem more complicated. While policy and practice strategies have been proposed to address air pollution’s impact on public health more generally, their benefits for brain health, including dementia, remain undeveloped. This policy brief (available here) suggests necessary advances across policy and practice to mitigate air pollution and its impact on brain health and dementia. 

This report, by Professor Brain Castellani, Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing and Mohaddeseh Ziyachi, NIHR ARC Fellow, calls for an audit of existing policies to fast-track actions that reduce our exposure to air pollution through our whole lives, including low-pollution school zones and the development of dementia-friendly communities. The report also calls for health, and specifically brain health, to be part of net zero strategies. You can read the article released by The Guardian here. 

Prof Brian Castellani said to The Guardian: “A major step change is improving urban life, for example road congestion, green spaces, indoor air quality, ultra-low emission zones, biking and pedestrian lanes, as well as tackling health and economic inequalities. We also need policies to recognise that even legal limits of air pollution can be harmful and potentially worsen the situation of people living with dementia, neurodegenerative disease or early life brain health issues.”