In case there are no reasons for us to try to make the world we live in more habitable, I will tell you to what extent pollution can affect the intelligence of our children.
We've talked about studies that relate pollution to children's intelligence, but now one that has been published directly links the pollution of the gases emitted by car engines with a decrease in the IQ and poor performance in intelligence and memory tests. They suggest, in particular, that pollution causes inflammation and brain oxidation.
The authors of the Harvard study said that the effect on the child's brain is comparable to that suffered by the baby whose mother smokes 10 cigarettes a day or those children who have been exposed to lead.
The results confirmed that high exposure to black coal, a component of the particles emitted by cars and trucks, especially diesel engines, was related to a reduction of about 3.4 points of IQ, as well as a lower performance in memory, vocabulary and learning tests.
What is the solution? How can we make our children breathe a purer air? Today, not much more than going to live in the countryside, but the solution is not that we flee from the cities but that we all do our part to leave our children a healthier world in which to live.
