Heart attacks, cancer, dementia, premature deaths: 4 essential reads on the health effects driving EPA’s new fine particle air pollution standard

• These minute particles can penetrate deeply into the body and have been linked to many serious illnesses.
• The new rule sets an annual limit of 9 micrograms per cubic meter of air, down from the previous level of 12 micrograms.
• Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to set air pollution standards at levels that protect public health.

1. An alarming array of health effects

• Subsequent research has linked fine particulates to a much broader range of health effects.
• They termed fine particle pollution an urgent global health threat.
• “Developed countries have made progress in reducing particulate air pollution in recent decades, but much remains to be done to further reduce this hazard,” they observed.

2. Aging the brain

• Medical researchers are looking closely at air pollution as a possible accelerator of brain aging.
• “When we compared the brain scans of older women from locations with high levels of PM2.5 to those with low levels, we found dementia risk increased by 24% over the five years,” Chen wrote.
• More alarmingly, “(T)hese Alzheimer’s-like brain changes were present in older women with no memory problems,” Chen noted.

3. Disadvantaged communities have dirtier air

• As researchers in environmental justice have shown, facilities such as factories and refineries often are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.
• This means that these areas are exposed to higher pollution levels and face heavier related health burdens.
• Regulations put in place under the Clean Air Act have greatly reduced levels of harmful air pollutants across the U.S. over the past 50 years.
• “In 1981 PM2.5 concentrations in the most polluted 10% of census tracts averaged 34 micrograms per cubic meter,” the authors reported.

4. Fine particle pollution hurts wildlife too

• Like the proverbial canaries in coal mines, wild animals can show effects of exposure to pollution that offer broader warnings.
• Cornell University conservation biologist Wendy M. Erb was studying wild orangutans in Indonesian Borneo when that island suffered large-scale wildfires.
• “Using passive acoustic monitoring to study vocally active indicator species, like orangutans, could unlock critical insights into wildfire smoke’s effects on wildlife populations worldwide,” she observed.