Poland's Belchatow Power Station, Europe's largest coal-fired power plant. (photo: Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
Exposure to Pollution Likely Driving an Increase in
Dementia
By
Colin Pritchard, Guardian UK
08 August 15
From background radiation to chemicals in
the food chain, environmental changes are contributing to a rapid global rise
in neurological disease
My interest in neurological disease was triggered by a
second friend dying of motor neurone disease
(MND), which in purely statistical terms was exceptional. It is suggested there
is an incidence of about one in 50,000 who are affected by
MND and most die. No one knows 50,000 people, so was it a statistical fluke?
This raised the question of whether there were
increases not only in MND, but in neurological disorders as a whole, including
the dementias. Using World Health Organisation mortality data, which – while
not perfect – is the best information available as it is collated in a standard
and uniform way, myself and colleagues at the faculty of health and social sciences at
Bournemouth University set out to investigate this.
Our first study, focusing on the changing pattern of
neurological deaths from 1979 up to 1997, found that dementias were starting 10
years earlier – affecting more people in their 40s and 50s – and that there was
a noticeable increase in neurological deaths in people up to the age of 74. In
a follow-up study, taking us to 2010 and across 21 western countries, these
increases were confirmed.
The results were controversial. As one newspaper
headline reported: “Modern living leads to brain disease”, which in a somewhat
simplistic way reflected what our research uncovered about the impact of the
changing environment in which we live on our neurological health.
This latest neurological study, published in the USA, found
that there are more people with neurological disease than ever before. Deaths
of men over 75 have nearly trebled in 20 years and deaths of women have
increased more than five-fold. For the first time since records began, more US
women over 75 are dying of brain disease than cancer.
In the other 20 western countries, most have doubled
their neurological deaths and seven countries trebled their neurological toll.
It might be argued that, as people live longer, they develop diseases that they
previously did not live long enough to develop. While there is some truth in
this, the speed and size of the increases in just 20 years points to mainly
environmental influences.
What might these environmental features be? In the
past 20 years, we have quadrupled our road and air transport, with the
inevitable increases in air pollution exposing us to a range of noxious
substances; our background radiation has increased with the use of
technological devices; there are organophosphates in our food chain. We need to
recognise the interactive relationship between these minor irritants that
collectively affect human health. We are beginning to acknowledge the human
impact on the natural world, but forget that we are part of the natural world,
too. The evidence for this lies in a number of clinical studies from across the
developed world, showing associations with a range of petrochemical radiation,
heavy metals and so on.
However, all these statistics hide the fact that the
numbers are about human lives. Not just the patient, but also their families
trying to cope with early onset dementia in a loved one, or watching a
neuro-degenerative disease destroy a life before their eyes. Perhaps the most
stark evidence of changes in the UK is the need for a new charity – Young
Dementia UK – whose clients are in their 40s and 50s, while the
Parkinson’s Disease Society now has a young PDS section. The speed of all these
changes is making extra demands on both medical and social care, and the way we
are set up to deal with this, which was barely adequate 20 years ago, is being
completely overwhelmed.
What does this mean to the patient and their family? A
partner will say: “I am living with a stranger, he has not known me for 10
years and the man I married died years ago, only this stranger remains.” What
can be done? A possible answer lies in what governments did regarding road
deaths. In 1970, there were 7,500 fatalities in the UK; by 2010, they were down
to 2,220 because the governments recognised the problem and acted. We need to
recognise that these results are not a statistical artefact, but a warning.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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