Parents, beware! Exposure to pollution on way to school affects kids’ memory growth

Researchers found an association between a reduction in working memory and exposure to a pollutant directly related to traffic.

Air pollution has been shown to affect your health in many ways, including causing damage to your heart. How polluted your kid’s school route is may impact their learning and growth. A new study, published in the journal Environmental Pollution, found an association between a reduction in working memory and exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) -- fine inhalable particles that have diameters of 2.5 micrometres or less -- and black carbon -- a pollutant directly related to traffic -- during the walking commute to and from school.

The findings of an earlier study had shown that 20% of a child’s daily dose of black carbon is inhaled during urban commutes. “The results of earlier toxicological and experimental studies have shown that these short exposures to very high concentrations of pollutants can have a disproportionately high impact on health” said first author of the study Mar Alvarez-Pedrerol, researcher at Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain.

Children who commute by car or on public transport are also exposed to high levels of pollution.

“The detrimental effects may be particularly marked in children because of their smaller lung capacity and higher respiratory rate,” she added. The study was carried out in Barcelona and enrolled over 1,200 children aged from 7 to 10, from 39 schools, all of whom walked to school on a daily basis. The children’s working memory and attention capacity was assessed several times during the 12-month study. Their exposure to air pollution over the same period was calculated on the basis of estimated levels on the shortest walking route to their school.

“The fact that children who walk to school may be more exposed to pollution does not mean that children who commute by car or on public transport are not also exposed to high levels,” said Jordi Sunyer, head of ISGlobal’s Child Health Programme. and co-author of the study. “The solution is the same for everyone: reduce the use of private vehicles for the school run and create less polluted and safer home-to-school routes,” Alvarez-Pedrerol said.

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