How air quality can affect mental health

Q: How come I feel more mentally refreshed when I am away in the countryside than when I am in the city. Does it have to do with air quality?

Your question takes me back to my childhood and in particular the Bible stories about Adam and Eve and their life in the Garden of Eden.

The picture painted by my teachers of the environment in which they lived, is still vivid in my mind and it consists of a place full of beautiful trees, all green and with flowers in full bloom, all emitting, wonderful scents of freshness. The birds were in plenty and were singing sweetly as the wind blew the tree branches ever so gently.

I can still see the butterflies in their many shapes and colours, floating in the breeze, undisturbed as they each kissed the flowers, in the process we now call pollination.

Several springs brought forth ice cold water ready to be drunk by the big and small animals that wondered freely and in harmony in this most beautiful garden of first creation. This home of tranquility was soon to be shaken at the core by the arrival of the snake that tempted Eve and thereafter the peaceful existence ended abruptly. The snake came and spoilt the party! As a result, many of us must live in city jungles that bear little or no resemblance to what we were originally meant to live in.

Last year (December 2020), The Institute of European Environmental Policy Studies released a report that you must look up and read, if you are genuinely interested in the link between mental health and the environment.

In essence the report found that there is indeed some scientific evidence that shows, on the one hand the benefit of the countryside as you put it, as well as the harm to mental health of city life and the pollution therein.

The harmful effect of the polluted environment is particularly severe among children. Traffic noise pollution has been linked to higher rates of anxiety, depression and other mental disorders. As is well known, small amounts of lead in the blood of children are linked to severe neurological damage. The study indicates that the European Union loses up to four percent of it’s GDP amounting to 600 billion Euros to mental disorders. The report argues that good environmental practices can lead to massive savings in Europe.

The same report gives evidence on the benefit of life in a healthy environment and says that cities that plan well for the environment of their citizens stand to benefit from the healthy mental health dividend. Your observation is strongly supported by science.

The kingdom of Bhutan is famous for its commitment to the reporting on the Gross National Happiness (GNP) of its people rather than simply reporting (as most countries do), on the Gross Domestic Product-(GDP).

One of the key indicators of the happiness of the people of the Kingdom, is to do with the ecological environment that they live in. It is recognised that a clean and safe environment is promotive of the quality of human life.

As you can see, and as was also reported some years ago by Unep, the environment in which you live has a significant bearing on your mental wellbeing. This talk would be incomplete if we did not look at other aspects of the environment and more specifically at a relatively new field called environmental psychiatry, which is also mirrored by environmental psychology.

These new fields are evolving as the body of knowledge is now growing rapidly and shows the link between climate change and mental health. Droughts and famine are obvious examples of the kind of stress now so common in Africa and fueled by climate change. Displacement of huge populations are also sources of stress and mental disorders as a direct result of climate change.

Closer to home, we have in the recent past been witness to the death and destruction occasioned by flooding and landslides that inevitably cause an increase in the rates of conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

So, whether one is thinking about the immediate or long-term effect of the environment, the mental health consequences are in evidence and are well documented.

Coming back to your specific question, there are a few studies that have looked at the effect of being outdoors and in nature that have conclusively shown that the green in nature leads to the release of hormones responsible for feeling good. If you think about it, it makes sense in that we evolved in the natural world and not in the city jungles that so many of call home. Many cities are now moving in the direction of enforcing green spaces for the mental wellbeing of their citizens.