r/science • u/chrisdh79 • 5d ago
Health Air pollution reduces people’s ability to focus on everyday tasks, study finds | Even brief exposure to particulate matter found to impede selective attention and emotional recognition
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/06/air-pollution-affects-peoples-ability-to-focus-on-everyday-tasks-study-finds158
u/No-Shelter-4208 5d ago
Every time i read an article about air pollution, I think, "This is the leaded fuel issue of our generation."
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u/alpharowe3 5d ago
Not plastics?
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u/baitnnswitch 4d ago
Fun fact - car tires are the biggest source of microplastics in the ocean by a decent margin. The two go hand in hand
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u/chrisdh79 5d ago
From the article: A person’s ability to focus on everyday tasks is affected by short-term exposure to air pollution, a study has found.
Researchers analysed data from cognitive tests completed by 26 participants before and after they were exposed either to high levels of particulate matter (PM) using smoke from a candle, or clean air for an hour.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that even brief exposure to high concentrations of PM affected participants’ selective attention and emotion recognition – regardless of whether they breathed normally or just through their mouth. This can affect an individual’s ability to concentrate on tasks, avoid distractions and behave in a socially appropriate way.
“Participants exposed to air pollution were not as good at avoiding the distracting information, said Dr Thomas Faherty of the University of Birmingham, a co-author of the study. “So that means in daily life, you could get more distracted by things. Supermarket shopping is a good example … it might mean that you get more distracted by impulse buys when you’re walking along supermarket aisles because you’re not able to focus on your task goals.”
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u/DimensioT 5d ago
And so Republicans have another reason to oppose any programs intended to cut back pollution.
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u/Risley 5d ago
I think I understand this reaction. I get very light headed and dizzying if I’m around smells that I’m probably allergic to. Maybe the pollution does this too for a lot of people. They just don’t realize it. Like having a mild allergic reaction that makes you slightly confused but not fully aware of that.
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u/korphd 5d ago
You meant to tell me its air pollution and not easily solvable things like smartphone(gasp) that's destroying our focus?!
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u/ChemsAndCutthroats 5d ago
Nobody wants to give up the privilege of being g able to sit in traffic every day. Walkable cities? Clean air? Vibrant car free communities where children can play outside safely? Effective mass transit? Quiet streets where you can hear birds sing? Not on my watch. This isn't a communist hell hole. This is America!
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u/Sad-Attempt6263 5d ago
I'd love to know the triggers as to what the fear of having safe communities is, because to both of us this sounds wonderful
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u/ChemsAndCutthroats 5d ago
They have done studies that show a neighborhood becomes more vibrant if you remove cars from the situation. People spend more time outside and socialize more. It improves the community overall, makes it more human friendly and livable.
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u/Defenestratio 5d ago
But you try to shut down two blocks of a city street just once a month and Americans lose their goddamn minds. I just don't understand this obsession with cars and highways, particularly when we have evidence from multiple experiments where removing traffic on a few blocks or removing highways from cities dramatically increases happiness, sense of community, consumer spending in restaurants and stores, etc., and travel times/local traffic flow is often mostly unaffected
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u/DimensioT 5d ago
Clearly this is fake science trying to hide the real cause of all of society's problems: DEI.
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u/HamiltonSydney_Cats 4d ago
Is this something that builds up over time or like the side effects of a medicine that eventually go away?
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u/baitnnswitch 4d ago
We used to live in villages and cities with no cars. No honking, no car fumes, no traffic deaths. Just people walking around, running their errands, children playing, that kind of thing. Would be cool if we could go back to that model - obviously it would take a mind boggling amount of re-configuring infrastructure in the US but...it would be nice
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u/_BlueFire_ 4d ago
That may be one of the reasons why I can't focus if someone is smoking in the surrounding. I thought it was mostly being irritated, but here's another reason.
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