It’s Time for Parents to Get Involved in the Fight for Clean Air

In 1981, less than a month after evidence of global warming was first reported the first pageand The New York Times interviewed BF Skinner about the future of people. A well-known psychologist had recently said that a part of the human mind is responsible for the destruction of the world’s environment. “Why aren’t we doing something to save our country?” Skinner asked, mentioning the many threats in the world.

The answer: Human behavior is determined almost entirely by our experiences—primarily, by what actions have been rewarded or punished in the past. The future, being before it, will not have the same influence on what we do; we will seek the familiar rewards of today—money, comfort, security, pleasure, power—even when doing so will threaten everyone on earth tomorrow.

Skinner was one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, yet he gets little credit for this warning, which predicted the behavior of oil executives and politicians for the next four decades. I have struggled with it many times. I am a pediatrician in Reno, Nevada, the a very hot city in the US. I look into the eyes of babies, children, and teenagers every day. Skinner argued that only when the consequences of environmental pollution go from “tomorrow” to “today” will our choices change. I believe that in 2025, the harm to children will become clear and at the same time parents – the sleeping giant in the climate war – will wake up to what the fossil fuel industry has done.

For example, in the last ten years, my city has been dark for a long time with the smoke from the California fires; 65 million Americans, especially in the West, they are now facing such “smoke problems”. Everyone understands that smoke causes respiratory problems; We all cough and wheeze when the air is bad for weeks. Few understand that children are at increased risk from these events for many reasons, especially related to their different bodies, small size, and immature organs-which, because they are still growing, are more vulnerable to being harmed by the environment. Children’s lungsfor example, they are actually shaped by the air they breathe. Children who regularly breathe in air polluted by particulate matter—such as those living in the most polluted areas of Los Angeles—tend to have smaller, tighter lungs.

In 2025, the media will realize that the harm from these harmful particles is greater. That’s because a lot of science shows that small particles, which are attached to toxic chemicals and heavy metals in smoke and fumes, cause brain damage in children. Ironically, it appears to be contributing to the spread of the autism epidemic attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and increase the likelihood of learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and later dementia.

Why? Because these small pollutants do not stay in the lungs; it gets into the bloodstream and into other organs, including the brain—which, like the lungs, is still growing and developing in the baby, and is therefore more vulnerable to injury.

Evidence for the involvement of brain particles comes from brain imaging, histology, and epidemiology. We know that even before birth. particles are attracted by pregnant women it can cross over and harm the unborn child; MRI studies in several countries have shown altered brain structure in preterm infants, many of whom had cognitive and behavioral problems. After birth, particles can also enter the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain behind the forehead – after being inhaled through the nose. When scientists studied the brains of children and young adults in Mexico Cityfamous for his bad breath, found small fatty deposits, trapped in Alzheimer’s-like plaques, deposited in the prefrontal cortex.

Evidence of a link between autism and ADHD has emerged in more than a decade of epidemiological studies from around the world. In a many years of education in about 300,000 children from Southern California, for example, prenatal exposure to PM2.5 (the smallest fraction regulated by law) was found to significantly increase the rate of autism. And the latest research 164,000 children in China found that long-term exposure to particulate matter increased the likelihood of ADHD. Although autism and ADHD are complex disorders with genetic and environmental causes, it is clear that air pollution—caused by fossil fuels and worsened by climate change—is a major threat.