Researchers investigating the effects of air pollution conducted math and verbal tests over the course of multiple years on more than 25,000 people in 162 Chinese counties. They matched those results with pollution conditions at the time of each test, and found sobering results.
In paper published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists found that pollution is linked to a significant decline in cognition, and that the impact increases with age.
The findings underscore the need for China to clean up the air, says study co-author Xi Chen, a professor of health policy and economics at the Yale School of Public Health.
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