Population Aging versus Air Pollution Effects on Dementia Incidence
Epidemiological evidence is strong for particulate air pollution to contribute to dementia risk. The primary underlying mechanism is thought to be increased systemic chronic inflammation via the interaction of pollutants with lung and airway tissue. Dementia is an age-related condition, however, and thus regardless of efforts to reduce air pollution, the incidence of dementia is increasing as the population undergoes demographic aging, where the proportion of old people grows over time. Demographic aging changes nothing of the moral and ethical arguments centered around prevention of suffering and death for developing means to effectively treat aging as a medical condition, but it does make the economic motivation more pressing. Suffering age-related disease and loss of function is expensive, both in terms of direct costs and opportunity costs. Sadly, the powers that be seem much more motivated by economic concerns rather than by ethical and moral concerns.
Air pollution was recently recognised as one of the 12 major modifiable risk factors for dementia. Although China's clean air policies have substantially reduced fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations since 2013, the implications for dementia-associated mortality remain unclear in the context of an ageing population. In this health impact assessment study, we integrated exposure data, population data, exposure-response association data, and mortality information from multiple sources, to estimate PM2.5-attributable dementia deaths in China from 2000 to 2024.
From 2000 to 2013, PM2ยท5-attributable dementia deaths increased from 55,668 to 106,571. From 2013 to 2024, despite substantial declines in population-weighted PM2.5 concentration, PM2.5-attributable dementia deaths dramatically increased from 106,571 to 171,420, with population ageing as the dominant driver of increasing dementia deaths, contributing approximately 67,000 PM2.5-attributable dementia deaths, with reductions in PM2.5 exposure avoiding approximately 11,000 deaths during this period.
In Norway this year so far 99,9% of all new cars are EVs so that helps us with clean air. Theres still nano polution particles from tires jumping up into air.