Just buying food for your children, taking them to Disneyland, or telling them you love them is not actually loving or caring for them. If you actually want to care for your children and do what’s best for them you’ll also not participate in activities that will destroy their planet nor support such policies. One such issue is air pollution and green spaces where certain politicians promote activities that lead to more air pollution and cutting back policies to reduce it, and promoting deforestation for the sake of short term economical gains.
Led by Matilda van den Bosch at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, and published in Environment International, researchers to investigate how air pollution, noise pollution, and green space in early life with risks of developing ADHD later by looking at data of 37,000 children in Canada born in 2000-2001 while using satellite metrics and exposure models for the green space and pollution estimation.
The concluded from their study that a 12% increase in vegetation percentage led to a 10% reduction in risk of developing ADHD. PM2.5 air pollution exposure on the other hand had the opposite effect where for every 2.1 microgram increase lead to an 11% increase risk of developing ADHD. When combined, there 50% decrease risk of developing ADHD where air pollution is the lowest and the green space was the highest; not the flip where air pollution was the highest and green space was the lowest, the risk was increased by 62%.
“We observed that children living in greener neighborhoods with low air pollution had a substantially decreased risk of ADHD. This is an environmental inequality where, in turn, those children living in areas with higher pollution and less greenness face a disproportionally greater risk”, stated author Matilda van den Bosch. “These associations are particularly relevant because exposures take place in early life, a crucial period for brain development where children are especially vulnerable. Importantly, these exposures are modifiable, meaning that the findings should be taken into account for healthier urban planning.”
ADHD cannot be fixed with money. Fathering and parenting isn’t just about taking your kids to school and changing some diapers. It’s about how you live your life and what kind of policies you support.
W Yuchi et al. Neighborhood environmental exposure and incidence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a population-based cohort study. Environment International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107120
