Air pollution doesn't only harm lungs, it could also impair brain function, Autoblog UK reports. A new study from European researchers found breathing polluted air diminishes cognitive abilities. What's interesting about this latest study, which comes from a coalition of German and Swiss researchers, is they've found pollutants can hurt brain function independently of a connection to the lungs. "Our findings disprove the hypothesis that air pollution first decreases lung function and this decline, in turn, causes cognitive impairment by releasing stress signals and humoral mediators into the body," said Mohammad Vossoughi, a PhD student at the Leibniz Institute for Environmental Medicine. The result raises questions about how air pollution has such direct effects on the brain, and Vossoughi is careful to emphasize the need for future research. Pollutants and particulate matter impact the central nervous system through our sense of smell. As European researchers further examine the causes of that direct link, their counterparts in Canada could suggest a solution. University of Toronto researchers released a paper on car pollution earlier this month that suggests 25 percent of the vehicles on the road are responsible for 90 percent of the pollution.
