Air pollution and brain damage.

[El_Machinae]

exposed mice to levels of air pollution typically found in mid-sized U.S. cities during rush hour.
...
The mice were exposed to polluted air for four hours each day for two four-day periods

New evidence links air pollution to autism, schizophrenia

Holy crap. Have you ever seen such a low dosing when looking for toxicity?

Now, the sample sizes in this study aren't great. It needs replication to be powerfully informative. But, sheesh!

children who lived in areas with high levels of traffic-related air pollution during their first year of life were three times as likely to develop autism

Additionally, we've known for awhile that being raised in a city lead to higher levels of schizophrenia.

These two diseases tend to have silent victims. They're weird and their parents are frazzled. For these reasons, the funding is much harder to come by than you'd think, there are just fewer sources.. BUT, the sheer level of suffering caused is immense.

 

[Tahuti]

I have read something similar about Asperger's syndrome proliferating Hi-Tech economic zones like Silicon Valley and Eindhoven. I'll post a link if I stumble on it again.

 

[Leonel]

I kind of wonder if that's what happened to me. When I was young, my dad would take me walking up and down Orchard Road in Singapore every week in the 80's before they banned lead in gasoline and I've always had difficulties in school whereas my sister grew up up in the hills of Hong Kong where pollution stayed at sea level and before China's industrial boom and she's studying to be a dentist.

Whether that's evidence, that's not up to me but it does make me think.

 

[Narz]

I wonder how much I screwed up my brain being a bike messenger for a year.

I have a love/hate relationship with living in a large city.

 

[El_Machinae]

I wonder how much I screwed up my brain being a bike messenger for a year.

This study used newborn pups, which are vastly less along in brain development than human babies and obviously much less developed than adults.

edit: wait, no. They used 'weanling', PND 4-7 and 10-13 (days after birth). Their eyes were still shut for most of the exposures.

 

[Narz]

I also grew up (age 0-5) in NYC.

(though I did spend some summers away)

 

[cybrxkhan]

Pretty much all of the pollution these days causes some problems. :/

Worse part is in some places you'd think you're relatively safe from some pollution, but you're not.

 

[Paul in Saudi]

I seem to recall that one possible explanation for the drop in crime in the last few decades is the removal of lead from gasoline.

 

[Hygro]

Gnarly, not surprised but nevertheless impressed.

And Paul, I've heard the same thing. I find it convincing. Lead is one hell of a poison.

 

[Tee Kay]

Pfft everyone knows vaccines cause brain damage. It's all Big Pharma's fault. Big Coal and Big Oil on the other hand are cuddly teddy bears and would never hurt us.

 

[classical_hero]

What pollutants are they talking about?

 

[Domen]

Is thinking about air pollution too much damaging your brain? I'm asking Greens.

 

[CavLancer]

CO2 causes brain damage?

 

[Domen]

Thinking too much about CO2 does.

You know what, the sad fact is that life causes brain damage and brain life causes brain death.

Had brains been dead since the beginning, there would have been no such problems.

 

[classical_hero]

CO2 causes brain damage?

4000ppm doesn't seem to cause much damage, but it can cause you to be alive again.

 

[El_Machinae]

Is thinking about air pollution too much damaging your brain? I'm asking Greens.

It can, but it takes ignorance to not think about pollution. There's a balance to be had. It also takes a certain lack of empathy to not consider the plight of autistics and schizophrenics, and of course empathy is a type of intelligence.

 

[Farm Boy]

I feel slightly validated when I whine about the air in town.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I seem to recall that one possible explanation for the drop in crime in the last few decades is the removal of lead from gasoline.

And Paul, I've heard the same thing. I find it convincing. Lead is one hell of a poison.

Well, if we forget the positive effects that legalizing abortion has had.

 

[Farm Boy]

Right right. The kill the unborn poor argument again.

 

[Tee Kay]

Family planning -> less financial pressure -> less stuff-related crime?