According to a new study, it was revealed that people, especially children living in heavily polluted cities could be at risk of going permanently blind.
This study, published in the journal PNAS Nexus, looked at 29,971 Chinese children in elementary, middle and high school, who were recruited between March 2021 and December 2023. The majority (70%) were in elementary school, and 52% of participants were boys.
Researchers had the recruited school children undergo a series of vision tests to look for myopia, also known as nearsightedness. Myopia is a condition that causes distant objects to appear blurry while closer objects are clear. Based on statistics, it affects nearly half of Americans. Although most cases can be treated with the use of glasses or contact lenses, some forms of myopia can eventually lead to conditions like cataracts and glaucoma, which gradually cause irreversible blindness.
Overall, 53% of participants were diagnosed with myopia. The researchers found that while cases of severe myopia were most strongly linked to genetic factors and younger age, milder cases were associated with modifiable risk factors. These risk factors included environmental contaminants emitted by cars, factories & powerplants, and access to green space outdoors.
Generally, it’s believed that air pollution triggers inflammation in the eye and disrupts tear film, a protective layer around the eye. These pollutants also tend to damage the cornea, eventually leading to scarring of the eye.
The researchers concluded by stating that this pattern indicated that in children with school myopia, differences in pollution exposure have a stronger impact on vision. However, in severe myopia cases, vision impairment is mainly driven by demographic factors, leaving environmental influences less influential.
