HN Reader

There are around 50k public air quality sensors globally that publish pm2.5 measurements. Still, there are no good air quality forecasts. In my two home cities (Dublin and Stockholm), there are 30-50 public sensors.

The first exercise in my O'Reilly book (released next month) is to build a pm25 forecast using basic ML (features are weather and lagged air quality). Code is available here:

https://github.com/featurestorebook/mlfs-book/

This article repeats the common mistake of conflating correlations and causality. The main results are (1) that PM2.5 exposure is correlated with dementia in humans, (2) some experimental results with mice. This does not establish causality in humans. The paper is careful to stay juuuust on the right side of the line by carefully using "associated" in the right places. But the press release discards that pretense at rigor and jumps straight to full-on claims of causality in people:

> Long-term exposure accelerates the development of Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease with dementia in people who are predisposed to the conditions.

I think it's entirely possible (perhaps even likely) that this is true. But the paper does not show it.

I've heard the argument made that it's better to stop burning fossil fuel, even if you're a climate change denier for reasons like this.

Even if you think climate change is a hoax, why not reduce pollution anyway?

Only so much you can do about ambient pollution in your city.

Looking carefully at your cooking situation is worthwhile though. Was horrified by the spike in readings from stuff like steak in a pan

Dementia rates in Miami Dade are among the highest in the country while Utah is on the low end. What is striking is that Utah has worse air quality, which is a known risk factor, yet still shows lower prevalence.

Why is that?

So … Beijing , Mumbai or Uulanbaatar habitants will face grim future ? Idk there are cities with decades of terrible air with PM25 way above 200 , but I never hear of such drastic developments ?

In my opinion, the reason air pollution effects dementia risk is through activation of Heat Shock Proteins and I think it is the most valuable place to be investing in research.

Heat Shock Proteins in Alzheimer’s Disease: Role and Targeting

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6163571/

Anyone knowledgable on this research area able to enlighten me on how pesticides are included (nor not) in these air particulate studies? In my head PM studies are primality focused on combusted stuff? Do pesticides factor into PM readings in a geography? I ask because I seem to recall there being some articles linking pesticides to dementia/Parkinson.

Does this imply that in 30 years or more we should expect spikes in China, India and other places with exceptional air pollution?

I don't doubt it and they could expect other implications if the pollution also included heavy metals and other chemicals in the air, water and land.

I'd like to know the effects of air pollution on at risk populations that use inhalable drugs or smoke as well. I believe the results would be much worse.

Potentially related

https://m.slashdot.org/story/446420

EDIT commenting to child so as not to start a flame war. Lung scarring, emphasema, bronchial illness and so forth can cause the lungs to trap particulates in the lungs longer than they should over the long term this exacerbating health risks. It definitely makes sense.

I wonder if forest firefighters have increased dementia.

directly related, really hoping AirGradient got their US warehouse setup before the tariff implosion blocked every other country postal deliveries

What level of PM2.5 are they considering? I cannot read the full study

Do we see reducing rates of dementia in cities like London which have dramatically improved their air quality over the last ~80 years?

Why do they show a picture of polluted India with people wearing masks and have some kind of skin thing going on, and then go on to show a heat map of PM2.5 rates across the USA, where the most polluted areas are nowhere near as polluted as non-western cities/countries [1].

Why do we never talk about the fact that the post polluted areas are not at all in the European civilization block, i.e., they are Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Chad, and the DR of Congo. So they should also have the highest rates of dementia if this research holds, right?

This all just seems like gaslighting lies, manipulation, and abuse.

[1] https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-air-pollution-l...

Therefore city dwellers are demented and rural dwellers aren't.

(And this says nothing about the effects of noise pollution or aesthetic pollution)

EDIT

Oh come on, it's the obvious conclusion. So discuss already.

duh...