Reducing fine dust can save millions of people from depression and suicide

The latest research results based on global survey data indicate a link between depression and suicide issues and air pollution. Research suggests that air quality cannot be underestimated.

What to do to reduce disease

The study recommends that improving air quality will prevent about 15% (millions of people) of depression and suicide.

Skopje in Northern Macedonia is Europe's most polluted city according to the WHO - (Photo: EPA).

The study was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, using data from 16 countries. According to the World Health Organization, more than 264 million people have died from depression.

According to the Guardian (UK), people who live in air-polluted areas are at higher risk for depression or suicide. The types of pollution analyzed in this study are airborne dust particles resulting from the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, homes and industrial scale.

The research team believes that the new evidence from this conclusion further strengthens the recommendations, calling on the world to take urgent action to address what the World Health Organization calls "a health emergency." healthy community quietly "to describe the dirty air.

More urgent than ever

"We have demonstrated that air pollution can significantly harm our mental health and cleanup," said Isobel Braithwaite of University College London, who led the research. The atmosphere is more urgent now than ever. "

"We know that the finest dust particles in dirty air can enter the brain through both blood vessels and nasal passages, and air pollution has also increased brain inflammation, destroying nerve cells. , causing a change in the production of stress hormone, a problem related to mental health decline , " said Isobel Braithwaite.

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