Francis Pope

Feb 6, 2025 | nature.com | Thomas Faherty |Gordon McFiggans |Francis Pope |Jane E. Raymond

Recent evidence suggests short-term exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution can impact brain function after a delay period. It is unknown whether effects are predominantly due to the olfactory or lung-brain pathways. In this study 26 adults (Mage = 27.7, SDage = 10.6) participated in four conditions. They were exposed to either high PM concentrations or clean air for one hour, using normal inhalation or restricted nasal inhalation and olfaction with a nose clip. Participants completed four cognitive tests before and four hours after exposure, assessing working memory, selective attention, emotion expression discrimination, and psychomotor vigilance. Results showed significant reductions in selective attention and emotion expression discrimination after enhanced PM versus clean air exposure. Air quality did not significantly impact psychomotor vigilance or working memory performance. Inhalation method did not significantly mediate effects, suggesting that short-term PM pollution affects cognitive function through lung-brain mechanisms, either directly or indirectly. It is unknown if the inhalation route (nasal or oral) of particulate matter (PM) air pollution affects cognition. Here the authors show PM exposure impaired selective attention and emotion recognition but not working memory or vigilance, with no mediation by inhalation.

Dec 9, 2024 | mdpi.com | Isabelle Whelan |Carlo Luiu |Francis Pope

1. Introduction 1.1. Health Impact of Air Pollution ImpactsAir pollution is recognised as the contamination of the atmosphere by any chemical, physical, or biological agent at increased concentrations, emitted from natural or anthropogenic sources, posing risks to human health [1,2]. The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies air pollution as the foremost environmental health threat, second only to tobacco smoking as the leading cause of non-communicable diseases and mortality in Europe [1,3].

Nov 25, 2024 | nature.com | Ajit Singh |Francis Pope |Carlo Luiu |John R. Bryson |Stefan Krause |Karen Rowlingson | +1 more

AbstractGlobally, climate change represents the most significant threat to the environment and socio-economic development, endangering lives and livelihoods. Within the UN’s current 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate action is explicitly covered under Goal 13, “to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”.

Oct 10, 2024 | preprints.org | Isabelle Whelan |Carlo Luiu |Francis Pope

Preprint Article Version 1 This version is not peer-reviewed Version 1 : Received: 9 October 2024 / Approved: 10 October 2024 / Online: 10 October 2024 (13:16:25 CEST) Whelan, I.; Luiu, C.; Pope, F. D. Assessing the Polarizing Impacts of Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods: A Community Perspective from Birmingham, UK. Preprints 2024, 2024100799. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0799.v1 Whelan, I.; Luiu, C.; Pope, F. D.