Wildfire Smoke Affects Your Mind As Well As Your Lungs
First it was the West coast. Now it’s the East coast. Wildfire smoke is not only affecting people’s lungs, making life unbearable, it is impacting people’s mental health as well, The Washington Post reports.
Research has linked poor air quality to everything from depression and anxiety to psychotic breakdowns and ADHD symptoms in kids.
“Because it involves inefficient combustion of wood, leaves and soil, wildfire smoke contains just an enormous number of chemicals. In many ways, breathing wildfire smoke is similar to smoking unfiltered cigarettes,” says Paul Wennberg, atmospheric chemist at California Institute of Technology.
Both urban pollution and wildfire smoke contain nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a harmful gas that can also react with other compounds in the air to produce secondary pollutants, like ozone. These compounds, along with fine particles found in pollution and smoke, have been found to negatively affect mental health.
Poor air quality linked to depression
A 2023 study published in JAMA showed that the more people across the nation are exposed to ozone, the higher their risk of developing depression. A British study showed that people who routinely breathe air with at least 10.6 micrograms per cubic meter of very fine particles in smoke have 15 percent higher risk of depression than those who live in areas with less than 9.3 micrograms of that pollutant per cubic meter. How bad did the recent Canadian wildfires make the air in New York City? On June 7, there were 196 micrograms per cubic meter of that same pollutant.
“It is possible, even likely, that there is a dose-response, with longer exposure to air pollution increasing the chances of depression. However, even acute, short-term exposure to air pollution may be detrimental,” says John Ioannidis, epidemiologist at Stanford University.
Pollution linked to anxiety, bipolar disorder, and more
A recent Chinese study found that young people living in areas with the highest fine particle pollution have a 29 percent higher risk of anxiety than those residing in areas with clean air.
Recent research from California showed that ozone increases the odds of bipolar disorder, self-harm and suicide. And in Denmark, a study linked high levels of NO2 in the air with schizophrenia.
Pollution linked to behavioral issues
Poor air quality even affects children’s behavior. One study found that preschool-aged children, for instance, may be quicker to break rules or act aggressively when air is unhealthy. Not only that, but a 2020 meta analysis of many studies found that air pollution goes hand in hand with unethical behavior in adults, such as dishonesty and cheating on tests.
Poor air quality affects stress
Air pollution also seems to affect the body’s stress response. A Canadian study showed that when lab rats were forced to breathe in ozone, “it not only flooded the animals’ bodies with stress hormones, but even changed the expression of stress genes in their brains — basically, flipped the stress genes on, like a light switch,” the article states.
According to David Eisenman, a public health researcher at UCLA, “living in a smoke-filled environment effects brain chemistry.”
Wildfire haze can affect our mental well-being negatively on an emotional or intellectual level. It’s hard to feel happy when the world seems to be going up in smoke. Psychologists refer to climate anxiety or something they call solastalgia, or “distress over seeing the natural environment negatively transformed.” A majority of Americans, 69 percent, are worried about climate change, and 29% of people describe themselves as “very worried.”
So what can we do when air quality is poor? Wear a mask, stay indoors whenever possible, and use air filters, experts say.
And if we’re concerned about the impact of poor air quality on mental health, says Wennberg, “Above all, fight climate change.”
Read the full article here.
Zaraska, Marta. “Wildfire smoke may be having a negative impact on your mental health.” The Washington Post, 6 Jul 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/07/06/wildfire-smoke-anxiety-mental-health/.
Photo by Ahmer Kalam on Unsplash