The impact of air pollution and urban noise on children
Examining the link between air pollution, noise, cognition, behaviour and academic attainment in children
With increasing population growth and continuing urbanisation, air quality and urban noise have emerged as important factors in global and pan-European diseases, as well as in public health within cities.
Air pollution concentrations on London’s busiest roads continue to exceed EU and UK guidelines, while it is predicted that 19% of the population in London are exposed to residential noise levels, and 100% to night-time noise levels, that exceed World Health Organisation guidelines.
Recent research suggests that long-term exposure to air pollution and noise may have detrimental effects on children’s thinking skills (cognition) and academic performance and behaviour. But there is limited scientific evidence and very little is known about the possible underlying mechanisms for these effects. Very few studies have considered the impact of urban environments on development in adolescents.
What we’re researching:
This large-scale longitudinal study examines the interrelationships between air pollution, noise, cognition, behaviour and academic attainment in school-age children living in Greater London. It brings together researchers from epidemiology, air pollution science, environmental health, toxicology, neuroscience and psychology.
Our aim is to investigate whether children who were born and grow up in urban environments show impaired cognitive development due to long-term exposure to air pollution and noise from traffic.
We are undertaking detailed monitoring of air pollution and noise exposure, including personal monitoring and indoor and outdoor measurements at the homes and schools of 200 participants. The data will be used to enhance existing models for estimating air pollution and noise exposure for this age group and applied to a bigger cohort of 6,000 secondary school-aged children.
An epidemiological analysis on the cohort of 6,000 children will examine their cognitive and behavioural development in relation to estimates of air pollution and noise at birth and through adolescence.
“Our work will strengthen the epidemiological evidence base of the relationship between air pollution and noise exposure on cognition and behavioural development among adolescents.”
What will the impact be?
The main beneficiaries of this research will be children and their parents living in Greater London.
"Our work will strengthen the epidemiological evidence base of the relationship between air pollution and noise exposure on cognition and behavioural development among adolescents," says Professor Michael Thomas, Director of Birkbeck's Centre for Educational Neuroscience, Department of Psychological Sciences.
"The project will greatly improve methods for estimating air pollution and noise exposure, which can be used in other studies and our findings will be shared with a wide range of stakeholders, including NGOs, politicians and media and industry representatives."
Project Fact-file
- Full project title: Cognitive Development in the Urban Environment (The CLUE study)
- Project funding: £608,916.07 [ID: MR/R00322X/1]
- Funder: Medical Research Council
- Length of award: 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2020
- Supported by: Department of Psychological Sciences (School of Science); Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development; Centre for Educational Neuroscience
- People: Principal Investigator: Dr Mireille Toledano, Imperial College London; Co-investigators: Dr John Gulliver, Imperial College London; Dr Ian Mudway, King’s College London; Professor Frank Kelly, King’s College London; Dr Benjamin Barrett, King’s College London; Dr Sean Beevers, King’s College London; Professor Michael Thomas, Birkbeck, University of London