Vehicle Pollutants Heightened Risk for Common Eye Condition

Researcherssay that long term exposure to pollutants from vehicle exhaust is linked to a heightenedrisk of the common eye condition, age related macular degeneration or AMD.

 AMD is a neuro-degenerative condition thataffects the middle part of the retina, known as the macula which is one of themost common causes of poor vision in older people and is most likely caused byan interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors.

According toa study, published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine, exposure to thehighest levels of air pollutants was associated with an almost double riskamong those aged 50 and older.

Researchers fromAsia University in Taiwan analyzed national health insurance and air qualitydata from 1998 to 2010 to see if there might be a link between long termexposure to the pollutants nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide and a heightenedrisk of AMD.

The researchersfocused on 39,819 people aged 50 and above as the condition is more commonamong older age groups.

Reports saythat a total of 1,442 people developed the cases of AMD during the monitoring period.The report also says that those with the highest level of exposure to nitrogendioxide were nearly twice as likely 91 per cent to develop AMD than thoseexposed to the lowest level. Those exposed to the highest level of carbonmonoxide were 84 per cent more likely to develop AMD than those exposed to thelowest levels.

The study has implicated nitrogen dioxide in cardiovascular and neurological ill health according to researchers and as the retina is part of the central nervous system, there is a plausible biological explanation for its vulnerability to this pollutant.