Air pollution increases the level of crime in the cities
Scientists study how air quality affects the physical and mental health.
Deterioration in air quality causes an increase in crime in the cities. To such conclusions came from several groups of scientists. New research from the United States and Europe describes the online publication The Conversation.
There is scientific evidence of the impact on human health high level of pollutants in the air increases the risk of respiratory infections, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and also dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Recently, scientists began to find more and more evidence that air pollution affects not only health but also behavior.
Researchers from three American universities, Columbia, Michigan and Harvard, have studied the relationship of air pollution and crime in 9360 cities in the U.S. and suggested a directly proportional relationship between these two factors.
They argue that air pollution increases anxiety, which in turn may provoke unethical or criminal behavior. The researchers noted that cities with higher levels of air pollution the level of crime above.
Air pollution not only spoils health, but also can contaminate their morality.Scientists
The findings of American scientists confirms the results of a recent study scientists from the London school of Economics and political science. British researchers compared data on what happened in two years, 1.8 million crimes with data on daily air pollution in London (the researchers used the values of the air quality index, AQI) with respect to temperature, humidity and amount of precipitation, days of the week and seasons. The researchers found that the increase in AQI by 10 points increased the crime rate is 0.9% and in the richest and poorest areas of London.
But researchers note that the findings relate to the growth of minor crimes such as shoplifting and pickpocketing, however, they found no significant impact on violent crimes such as murder, rape or assault resulting in serious injury. Thus, the available scientists data show that air pollution can reinforce bad behavior, especially among young people.