Air Pollution, Ultrafine Particles, and Your Brain: Are Combustion Nanoparticle Emissions and Engineered Nanoparticles Causing Preventable Fatal Neurodegenerative Diseases and Common Neuropsychiatric Outcomes?
Lilian Calderón‐Garcidueñas, Alberto Ayala
Abstract
As research continues to answer the remaining questions about UFP sources, exposures, impacts, and controls, the precautionary principle should call us to accelerate and expand policy interventions to abate or eliminate UFP emissions and to mitigate UFP exposures. For residents of highly polluted cities, particularly in the developing world where there is likely older and dirtier vehicles, equipment, and fuels in use and less regulatory oversight, we should embark in a strong campaign to raise public awareness of the associations between high PM pollution, heavy traffic, UFP, NP, and neuropsychiatric outcomes, including dementia. Neurodegenerative diseases evolving from childhood in polluted, anthropogenic, and industrial environments ought to be preventable.