Air Pollution Is Doing More Than Just Slowly Killing Us
In the future, the authorities might need to consider checking the levels of the air pollution in the area. They would possibly need to deploy resources to areas where the air pollution levels are the heaviest on any given day. Though this sounds more like a plot of a sci-fi movie, recent studies show that it might not be that bad to put this into practice. Why the thought?
Emerging studies about air pollution shows its link to the impairment of human judgement, various mental health problems and poorer performance in school and at work. Perhaps the most dangerous type of effect it has on humans is that it may be the reason why the crime rate of a given area is higher than that of the areas near it.
These findings also prove to be alarming as most of the populated communities these days live in urban environments. More and more people are travelling everyday and they are exposed to air pollution more than they would want to. The World Health Organization released a report that says that nine out of 10 people are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution. Sadly, the effects of such exposure won;t be felt until it becomes too late.
Did you know that air pollution is the cause of death of an estimateed number of seven million each year? It leads to people developing lung problems and other complications. However, in the recent report that the WHO released, it may be easy to assume that the increase in the number of murders committed in a year could be added to this too.
Sefi Roth, a researcher from the London School of Economics, expressed his ideas about the many other ways air pollution affects people. He was fully aware of how to impacts the human health negatively, increasing the number of those in hospital admissions and even deaths. And then he pondered upon the thought that it may come with other adverse effects on human other than our health.
Roth and his team looked into how air pollution affects the way people think. They observed students taking exams on particular days noting the air pollution present on those days too. All the other variables remained the same. The results of the study presented varying results. On most polluted days, the exam scores were relatively low.
"There was a clear decline in the performance of students who took the exam on days when air pollution is high," Roth said. While the data gathered was not enough to backup the idea of air pollution causing people to commit crimes, it clearly shows that there is a significant relationship between the two.
Roth remains hopeful that the increase in air pollution levels is something that we can still control if not solve. Perhaps what needs to be done is for people to be made more aware of the issues and make them realize that it concerns them too.