Out of sorts and can’t quite put your finger on why? It may well be in the air you breathe. According to a landmark study by scientists at Stanford University, inhaling polluted air can make one feel moody and a little crazy, the potential for long-term mental health issues aside.
The repeated sampling of 150 subjects over a year finds what is termed “affective sensitivity to air pollution,” which is the variation in the quality of daily air affecting one’s mood. In a peer-reviewed journal called PLoS One, the study published explains how interlinked both air pollution and mental health are.
The findings further add to previous work showing that long-term exposure to dirty air can raise anxiety and depression. The Stanford team hopes their work can broaden the focus of the broader human health and well-being impacts stemming from the climate crisis. “This new construct can be leveraged to better integrate affect and mental health in climate adaptation policies, plans, and programs,” said the study.
Recent events underline the need to take measures against air pollution. Smoke from Canadian wildfires enveloped Central Park in New York City in June 2023. This is an excellent example of how air quality can go bad in a moment and badly impact millions of people. As climate change worsens, such incidents are going to be common and more catastrophic.
This relationship has been abundantly clear to climate researchers for years. Two years ago, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a leading international body studying climate change, started to factor mental health impacts into its reports. Researchers said that extreme weather events and high temperatures, combined with the loss of livelihoods and culture associated with climate change, create trauma that proves catastrophic to one’s mental health.
“We’re also seeing these cascading, compounding impacts where we’re having, for example, the fires in the black summer in Australia followed by floods and followed by other extreme events,” said Kathryn Bowen, a co-author of a 2022 report.
The threat of air pollution doesn’t stop at mental health. A recent report by Nanyang Technological University of Singapore showed that 135 million people have died within the past four decades due to pollution.
2023 has also been the hottest year on record, a climate crisis that is causing extreme temperatures to hit communities from all corners of the world. Temperatures have risen, warming oceans, and fueling a record-breaking and destructive hurricane season in the Atlantic. According to scientists, up to 23 named tropical storms and hurricanes might form by November.
In June alone, Hurricane Beryl caused a lot of destruction across the Caribbean, becoming the earliest recorded Category 5 storm due to unprecedented ocean temperatures.
The hidden toll of air pollution on mental health becomes more obvious as the climate crisis unfolds. Urgent and complete action is required to protect both our environment and our wellbeing.