It’s time for parents to step up in the fight for clean air

In 1981, less than a month after evidence of global warming was first reported first pageu The New York Times asked BF Skinner about the fate of humanity. The famous psychologist had recently argued that a characteristic of the human mind virtually guaranteed global environmental disaster. “Why don’t we act to save our world?” Skinner asked, citing a myriad of threats to the planet.

His answer: Human behavior is governed almost entirely by our experiences, in particular, by which actions have been rewarded or punished in the past. The future, not having happened yet, will never have the same influence on what we do; we will seek family rewards today – money, comfort, security, pleasure, power – even when doing so threatens everyone on the planet tomorrow.

Skinner was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, but he rarely gets credit for the foresight of this warning, which predicted the behavior of fossil fuel executives and politicians for the next four decades. I have struggled with it often. I am a pediatrician in Reno, Nevada, u the fastest warming city in the United States. I look into the eyes of babies, children and teenagers every day. Skinner argued that only when the consequences of environmental destruction move from “tomorrow” to “today” will our choices change. I believe that in 2025, the damage to children will become so clear and immediate that parents – the sleeping giant in the climate fight – will wake up to what the fossil fuel industry has done.

In recent decades, for example, my city has been obscured for longer and longer stretches by wildfire smoke from California; 65 million Americans, especially in the West, you are now experiencing such “smoke crises”. Everyone understands that smoking causes respiratory problems; we all cough and wheeze when the air becomes dangerous for weeks at a time. Little do they understand that children are at greater risk from these events for many reasons, especially in relation to their different physiology, small size and immature organs – which, because they are still developing, are very vulnerable to environmental injury. Children’s lungsfor example, they are literally shaped by the quality of the air they breathe. Children who chronically inhale particulate pollution — such as those living in Los Angeles’ most polluted neighborhoods — tend to develop smaller, stiffer lungs.

In 2025, the media will realize that the damage from these tiny pollutants is even more profound. That’s because a growing body of science shows that fine and ultrafine particles, usually linked to toxic chemicals and heavy metals in fire and excavation smoke, cause brain injuries in children. Alarmingly, they seem to be contributing to the rise of autism as an epidemic attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in terms of increasing the chances of learning disabilities, behavior problems, and later dementia.

For what? Because these tiny pollutants do not stop at the lungs; they invade the blood and penetrate other organs, including the brain, which, like the lungs, is still growing and developing in a child, and thus more susceptible to damage.

Evidence of the neurological impacts of particles comes from brain imaging, histology and epidemiology. We know that even before birth, particles inhaled by pregnant women it can cross the placenta and injure the fetus; MRI studies in many countries have shown altered brain architecture in prenatally exposed children, many of whom struggled with cognition and behavior. After birth, particles can also penetrate 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 Citynotorious for its bad air, they found particles of fossil fuels, embedded in plaques similar to Alzheimer’s, embedded in the prefrontal cortex.

Evidence of a link with autism and ADHD has emerged in more than a decade of epidemiological studies from around the world. In a multi-year study of nearly 300,000 children from Southern California, for example, prenatal exposure to PM2.5 (the smallest particle regulated by law) was found to significantly increase autism rates. And a more recent study 164,000 children in China found that long-term exposure to fine particles increased the odds of ADHD. Although autism and ADHD are complex disorders with multiple genetic and environmental causes, it is increasingly clear that air pollution – caused by fossil fuels and exacerbated by climate change – is a significant risk factor.