released through trendy wood burners and wood burning stoves<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe researchers found that for every ten micrograms of pollutant per cubic meter (\u00b5g\/m\u00b3), the risk of dementia increased by 17 per cent.<\/p>\n
This is concerning as the average roadside measurement of PM2.5 in central London is ten\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile for every ten \u00b5g\/m\u00b3 of NO2, the risk of dementia increased by three per cent; the average roadside measurement for the pollutant in the Capital is 33\u00b5g\/m\u00b3.<\/p>\n
And for every one\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3 of soot, which is found in PM2.5, the risk increased by 13 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The average soot concentrations at roadsides measured in 2023 were 0.93\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3 in London, 1.51\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3 in Birmingham and 0.65\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3 in Glasgow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lead author Dr Haneen Khreis said their findings support evidence that long-term exposure to air pollution is linked to the ‘onset of dementia in previously healthy adults’.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/40889254-14940695-At_ground_level_ozone_causes_a_smoggy_haze_typically_seen_in_cit-a-1_1753453748471.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The researchers who analysed a large number of studies found a link between air pollution and dementia which blights families across the UK\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Tackling air pollution can deliver long-term health, social, climate and economic benefit. It can reduce the immense burden on patients, families, and caregivers, while easing pressure on overstretched healthcare systems,’ he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In response to the findings, Dr Mark Dallas, a neuroscience specialist at the University of Reading told MailOnline: ‘We still need to understand exactly how these pollutants damage the brain and increase the diversity in dementia research participants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘This will help us learn more about how air pollution affects different types of dementia and whether some communities face higher risks than others.’<\/p>\n
Dr Isolde Radford, senior policy manager at Alzheimer\u2019s Research UK, added: ‘This rigorous review adds to mounting evidence that exposure to air pollution \u2013 from traffic fumes to wood burners \u2013 increases the risk of developing dementia.<\/p>\n
‘But poor air quality doesn\u2019t affect all communities equally. As this analysis highlights, marginalised groups are often exposed to higher levels of pollution, yet remain underrepresented in research.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Future studies must reflect the full diversity of society \u2013 because those most at risk could stand to benefit the most from action.’<\/p>\n
There have been many suggestions by experts as to why air pollution causes\u00a0 dementia.<\/p>\n
Some have proposed it causes inflammation of the brain and oxidative stress\u2014when cells, proteins and DNA is damaged.<\/p>\n
These two processes have been strongly linked to the devastating illness dementia, the authors said.<\/p>\n
They explained, when we breathe in these pollutants they can trigger these processes through direct entry to the brain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Air pollution can also enter circulation from the lungs, travelling to solid organs, initiating local and wide-spread inflammation, they warned.<\/p>\n
Other studies have shown dementia may also be caused by hearing loss, social isolation and smoking.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, toxic outdoor air pollution has also been linked <\/a>to lung cancer and colon cancer.<\/p>\nSpecifically, the cancers were linked to the pollutants PM2.5, NO2, and ozone\u2014a secondary pollutant created NO2 reacts with others in the sunlight.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has long demanded countries to combat air pollution, which is thought to kill seven million globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have uncovered yet more evidence to link developing dementia with air pollution\u2014and this interactive map reveals the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2426,1190,97,59,679,102,388,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-28708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-cambridge","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-glasgow","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}