Overview
- The GeroScience study, which was published Friday, links higher exposure to PM2.5, PM10 and nitrogen oxides to earlier first diagnoses for 48 of 78 conditions.
- Researchers analyzed more than 900,000 hospital records from 396,000 UK Biobank participants who enrolled between 2006 and 2010.
- Neurological and psychiatric disorders showed the biggest shifts, with some conditions arriving two to five years sooner under higher pollution.
- Specific ties included PM2.5 with younger hypertension diagnosis by about 0.93%, PM10 with earlier diabetes, and nitrogen oxides with COPD and earlier dementia.
- The authors estimated that meeting the 2021 WHO air limits would have spared the cohort about 539,000 years of illness, and public health bodies cite large UK and European burdens from persistent PM2.5 exposure.