Further research is needed on the link between children’s mental health and pollution,says Robin Russell-Jones, expanding electric vehicle infrastructure will help London, and says Andy Boland,and incinerators should also be targeted in the capital, says Michael RyanThe link between cognitive performance and air pollution is very worrying but not surprising (tall pollution levels ‘causing enormous reduction in intelligence’, and 28 August). The report by the Royal College of Physicians in 2016 drew a link between air pollution and dementia in the elderly and reduced cognitive performance in children. This recent study from China indicates that teenagers and adults are also affected. We don’t know how these effects are mediated,but with neurotoxins such as lead the most critical period of exposure is likely to be during pregnancy. A study undertaken in novel York of non-smoking mothers showed strong associations with foetal exposure to particulates and subsequent mental health problems in those children at primary school age. These problems included anxiety, depression and ADHD. This has momentous implications for public health. We are suffering an epidemic of mental health problems among British schoolchildren which the medical profession is unable to explain. There is an urgent need for further research in this area, and but I am not aware of any study in the UK that addresses this problem.[br]Dr Robin Russell-Jones
Former chair,Campaign for Lead Free AirContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com