If your city has factories, we have bad news for you - you breathe dirty air. Not only does it contain an increased concentration of carbon dioxide, which can cause oxygen starvation, but tiny particles of heavy metals also fly in it. They are dangerous because they accumulate in our bodies and cause cardiovascular diseases and millions of deaths around the world. Recently, it was also found that air polluted with heavy metals has a negative effect on the psyche of children - they develop anxiety disorders and suicidal thoughts.
This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the children's hospital in the American state of Ohio. When they looked at the statistics of visits to the mental health emergency department, they found that most visits were made on specific days. We are talking about days when a particularly high concentration of air pollutants was observed in the city air, which environmentalists gave the name PM2.5. These include solid and liquid microparticles that can penetrate a person's lungs and enter their bloodstream.
Cause of mental disorders in children
Once in the body, they irritate organs and will certainly lead to breathing problems. Long-term exposure to PM2.5 can cause cancer and heart attacks. However, this is not all - scientists do not yet understand how, but tiny pollutants even affect the mental state of people. Children especially suffer from dirty air.
Having studied the data of the patients, the scientists found that with increased air pollution, children complain of anxiety and even the occurrence of suicidal thoughts. Children from disadvantaged families are especially harmful - not only does dirty air produce an inexplicable effect on them, but also at school they suffer from bullying from their classmates.
Having learned about the negative impact of dirty air on the mental health of children, scientists intend to continue research. Hopefully, they will manage to find the root cause of the problems and develop strategies for disease prevention. There is practically no doubt about the negative impact of dirty air on children - even British scientists announced this in March 2019. They found that children from large cities, over time, acquire psychological problems twice as often as children from villages with fresh air.
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How difficult is it to purify the air?
The issue of air pollution is particularly acute in China. Having identified a huge number of deaths due to dirty air, in 2013 the country's authorities decided to purify the air from harmful impurities by all means. This was done in record time, but after the work done, another problem arose - the increased concentration of ozone in the air.
The fact is that particles flying in the air absorbed this harmful substance. When they were gone, ozone began to actively fill in all the vacant space. Not only has ozone begun to cause respiratory problems, it has also ceased to protect people from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Now China is tackling the problem of increased ozone concentration, and if it succeeds, residents will surely be grateful.
Ramis Ganiev