User Forum

According to experts, depression is on the list of most common mental health disorders. According to statistics, more than 7% of US residents suffer from a major depressive disorder on an annual basis. Although there are many complex causes of this disorder, researchers are still trying to know more about this aspect. So far, we know that there is a relationship between air pollution and depression. A new study has found that this disorder may be linked with pollution. Let’s find out more about it.

Researchers conducted a study with the help of a group of healthy volunteers in Beijing. According to experts, depression is on the list of most common mental health disorders. If you look at statistics, the most polluted cities are in China. Since these cities have a high level of pollution, researchers have chosen their residents to conduct this experiment.

Experts used air quality monitors in order to get a better idea of the volunteers’ exposure to fine particulate matter. Afterwards, all of the participants were evaluated for different signs of depression. Besides, they were also tested for their cognitive performance. The purpose was to find out if their cognitive performance declined due to breathing poor quality air.

They found that poor air quality has a negative impact on the mood and cognitive performance of people. Besides, researchers also came to know about a mechanism that may cause people to suffer from depression when exposed to pollution. They wanted to know as much as possible by conducting this experiment.

Apart from this, researchers also came to know that individuals that have genetic predisposition were more likely to develop a disorder when they are exposed to polluted air for the long term. The thing is that air pollution may also have a negative impact on the neural network in the human brain. Once this neural network is compromised, the individual may start having problems. So, we can say that air pollution can be very bad for your mental health. Once your mental health is compromised, you will have problems with other parts of your body as well.

So, we can say that air pollution is one of the primary factors that causes depression. This is the reason people are more likely to suffer from depression when they live in highly polluted areas. Therefore, those who live in the countryside have better mental health.

Although more research is required to completely understand the relationship between air pollution and depression, we suggest that you try your level best to breathe fresh air. For this purpose, we suggest that you consider purchasing a good air purifier for your home or office. These simple but powerful devices can purify your indoor air in an efficient manner. After all, you don’t want to suffer from depression in your life.

"When I leave," Sophie said, coming home from school, "I m going to have a boutique." Jansie, linking arms with her along the street; looked doubtful.

"Takes money, Soaf, something like that." "I'll find it," Sophie said, staring far down the street. "Take you a long time to save that much." "Well I'll be a manager then–yes, of course– to begin with. Till I've got enough. But anyway, I know just how it's all going to look."

"They wouldn't make you manager straight off, Soaf." "I'll be like Mary Quant," Sophie said. "I'll have the most amazing shop this city's ever seen." Jansie, knowing they were both earmarked for the biscuit factory, became melancholy. She wished Sophie wouldn't say these things

When they reached Sophie's street Jansie said, "It's only a few months away now, Soaf, you really should be sensible. They don't pay well for shop work, you know that, your dad would never allow it." "Or an actress. Now there's real money in that. Yes, and I could maybe have the boutique on the side. Actresses don't work full time, do they? Anyway, that or a fashion designer, you know – something a bit sophisticated."

And she turned in through the open street door leaving Jansie standing in the rain. "If ever I come into money I'll buy a boutique." "Huh - if you ever come into money..... if you ever come into money you'll buy us a blessed decent house to live in, thank you very much." Sophie's father was scooping shepherd's pie into his mouth as hard as he could go, his plump face still grimy and sweat-marked from the day.

"She thinks money grows on trees, don't she, Dad?' said little Derek, hanging on the back of his father's chair. Their mother sighed. Sophie watched her back stooped over the sink and wondered at the delicate bow which fastened her apron strings. The delicateseeming bow and the crooked back. The evening had already blacked in the windows and the small room was steamy from the stove and cluttered with the heavy-breathing man in his vest at the table and the dirty washing piled up in the corner. Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. She went to look for her brother Geoff.

He was kneeling on the floor in the next room tinkering with a part of his motorcycle over some newspaper spread on the carpet. He was three years out of school, an apprentice mechanic, travelling to his work each day to the far side of the city. He was almost grown up now, and she suspected areas of his life about which she knew nothing, about which he never spoke. He said little at all, ever, voluntarily. Words had to be prized out of him like stones out of the ground. And she was jealous of his silence. When he wasn't speaking it was as though he was away somewhere, out there in the world in those places she had never been.

An underwater archaeologist from The University of Texas at Arlington is part of a research team studying 9,000-years old stone tool artifacts discovered in Lake Huron that originated from an obsidian quarry more than 2,000 miles away in central Oregon.
The obsidian flakes from the underwater archaeological site represent the oldest and farthest east confirmed specimens of western obsidian ever found in the continental United States.
"In this case, these tiny obsidian artifacts reveal social connections across North America 9,000 years ago," said Ashley Lemke, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at UT Arlington." The artifacts found below the Great Lakes come from a geological source in Oregon, 4,000 kilometers away -- making it one of the longest distances recorded for obsidian artifacts anywhere in the world."
Because the site was underwater and undisturbed, researchers systematically and scientifically recovered the obsidian, a form of volcanic glass that was used and traded widely throughout much of human history as a prized material for making sharp tools.
"These are very small pieces that have very large stories to tell," Lemke said. "Obsidian from the far western United States is rarely found in the east."
The find in Lake Huron is part of a broader study to understand the social and economic organization of caribou hunters at the end of the last ice age. Water levels were much lower then; scientists have found, for example, ancient sites like stone walls and hunting blinds that are now 100 feet underwater.
"This particular find is really exciting because it shows how important underwater archaeology is," Lemke said. "The preservation of ancient underwater sites is unparalleled on land, and these places have given us a great opportunity to learn more about past peoples."