According to the research, increased exposure to air pollution can also lead to a rise in mental illness, The Guardian reported, citing "the most comprehensive study of its kind" to date.
Researchers studied 13,000 people in London and found that there is a relatively small increase in being exposed to nitrogen dioxide, which then led to a 32 percent increase in the risk of requiring community-based mental health treatment and an 18 percent increase in hospital treatment for the same issues.
The scientists conducting the study said that their findings are likelier to apply to those living in larger cities of developed countries, adding that cutting out air pollution could eventually benefit millions.
“Air pollution is modifiable, and on a big scale as well, reducing population-level exposure,” Joanne Newbury, of the University of Bristol, part of the research team, told the media outlet. “We know there are interventions that can be used, such as expanding low-emission zones. Mental health interventions at the individual level are actually quite difficult.”
The outlet added:
The study used the frequency of admission to hospital or visits to community doctors and nurses as a measure of severity. The researchers calculated that a small reduction in one pollutant alone could reduce illness and save the NHS tens of millions a year.
Levels of air pollution in London have fallen in recent years but there is no safe level, said Ioannis Bakolis, of King’s College London, who led the research.
“Even at low levels of air pollution, you can observe this kind of very important effect," Bakolis told The Guardian.
The study appears to build on previous research that found even incremental increases in air pollution can lead to often significant elevations in anxiety and depression -- other factors that appear more common in left-wing city dwellers. Dirtier air has also been attributed to higher suicide rates and that kids that are raised in polluted air environments are more likely to develop mental disorders.
Air pollution can also lead to a "huge" reduction in overall intelligence and may even be a contributor to dementia, which could help explain our current president's condition after having spent so much time in crowded Washington, D.C., for the bulk of his adult life.
And in 2019, a global meta-analysis of data found that air pollution could also be damaging all other bodily organs besides just the brain, The Guardian reported.
The most recent study, which was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, followed patients in south London from the first time they were in contact with mental health services while utilizing high-resolution estimates of the air quality at their homes.
"The link was strongest for NO2, which is largely emitted by diesel vehicles, but was also significant for small particle pollution, which is produced by burning all fossil fuels," The Guardian reported, citing the data.
The researchers noted: “Identifying modifiable risk factors for illness severity and relapse could inform early intervention efforts and reduce the human suffering and high economic costs caused by long-term chronic mental illness."
“Cost evaluations currently only factor in physical health, but we’re seeing more studies demonstrating links with mental health,” added Newbury. “We think it can be important to include these, because it could tip the scales and make it clearer that investing in reducing air pollution is cost-effective.”
Now, this could be just another 'study' aimed at reducing overall use of fossil fuels, which the left hypocritically pushes for while relying on fossil fuel-burning processes to travel and live more comfortably.
But there's no doubt that burning fossil fuels does produce pollutants, which tend to gather in greater concentrations in cities -- which are all run by leftists.
Still, there is a solution: Get out of the cities and live a cleaner, fresher life even if you drive a gasoline-powered car and heat and cool your home year round. The fresh air will do your mental health good and you won't come to see our modern life as such a bad thing. And you'll vote for saner people.
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