There is more to it than you know.
The World Health Organization says nine out of ten people frequently breathe in dangerous levels of polluted air. We believe almost every person in this world is aware of the negative outcome of polluted air on our physical health. But is it just our physical health affected by the polluted air, or can it be that polluted air affects us mentally as well?
In 2011, Sefi Roth, a researcher at the London School of Economics, became curious about it while pondering the many effects of air pollution.
Initially, he conducted a study looking at air pollution’s effects on cognitive performance. He and his team observed students taking exams on different days and concurrently measured how much pollution was in the air on those given days. The exams were conducted over multiple days with variables like the level of education of students and the place of examination, etc., remained the same.
Their study revealed that the variation in average results was staggeringly different. The most polluted days correlated with the worst test scores. On days where the air quality was cleanest, students performed better.
These insights led him to conduct another study to determine whether air pollution can affect one’s mental state and behaviour.
In 2018, his team analyzed two years of crime data from over 600 London electoral wards and found out that more petty crimes occurred on the most polluted days, in both rich and poor areas.
As part of the same study, they compared the pollution levels of specific areas over time. To get results, they followed a cloud of polluted air every day and observed the crime rate in those areas where the cloud travelled.
As a result, they found that wherever it went, the crime rate increased.
Air pollution kills an estimated seven million people per year. But will we soon need to add murder figures in the statistics as well?
These studies show that air pollution doesn’t just affect your physical health but also can have a severe impact on your mental health and behaviour.
That’s why we recommend gO2 therapy. In just a few puffs, it can help you recover after being exposed to poor air quality so that you can keep a check on both your physical and mental health.
