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Guardian Morning Briefing: Dirty air and the brain
Dirty air and the brain – Air pollution causes a “huge” reduction in intelligence, according to new research conducted in China but relevant across the world, with 95% of the global population breathing unsafe air. High pollution levels led to drops in test scores on language and arithmetic. “Polluted air can cause everyone to reduce their level of education by one year, which is huge,” said Xi Chen at Yale School of Public Health in the US, adding that for the elderly, for men, and for less-educated people “it may be a few years of education”. The findings are “extremely worrying”, says Rebecca Daniels, from the UK public health charity Medact. “The UK’s air is illegally polluted and is harming people’s health every day … government must commit to bringing air pollution below legal limits as soon as possible.”
Source: The Guardian