Short-term impacts of inhaled PM10-associated metals on cognitive and sensorimotor function in primary school aged children

Air pollution (AP) is a complex mixture of gases and particulate matter (PM), including metals. Increasingly, evidence suggests a neurological impact of long-term AP exposure, however short-term effects of brain development are less well understood. Neurotoxic metal components of PM₁₀ may be of notable concern. Using data from the Children's Health in London and Luton cohort, we investigated the acute impact of day-to-day variations in airborne metals on cognitive and sensorimotor function in primary school-aged children. 887 children were recruited from London primary schools. Cognitive - working memory (WM), inhibition control (IC), processing speed (PS) - and sensorimotor (SM) function were assessed between 2019 and 2022. Daily exposure concentrations for neurotoxic metals - aluminium, arsenic, lead, and manganese - were taken from a background London monitoring station and exposure estimates were calculated for same day, 1 day prior, and 1 week prior to cognitive testing. Associations between metal exposures and test scores were assessed using a mixed-effects regression model adjusted for age, gender and BMI. Significant negative associations were found between aluminium and WM, SM and PS scores: coefficients were −0.18 (p=0.001), −0.41 (p=0.01) and −0.03 (p=0.03), respectively. Manganese was negatively associated with IC scores (coefficient = -9.36; p=0.01). Lead was negatively associated with WM, PS and IC scores: coefficients were -2.57 (p=0.01), -34.72 (p=0.01) and -10.68 (p=0.01), respectively. These results indicate detrimental acute effects of breathing airborne particle-associated metals on cognitive and sensorimotor function in school-aged children.