YOU'VE heard of the thunderstorm asthma phenomenon, but US researchers have now found that airborne particulate matter can impact more than just your breathing.
A fascinating paper published in the Management Science journal has found that expert chess players are more likely to make mistakes when air pollution levels are high.
The scientists used computer models to analyse the quality of a series of chess tournaments, finding that indoor air quality significantly impacted players' ability to make strategic moves.
They used special air quality sensors installed at tournament venues in Germany during 2017, 2018 and 2019 where players made over 30,000 chess moves.
An increase of 10 micrograms per cubic metre of fine particles in the air increased the probability of making an erroneous move by as much as a whopping 26.3%, the analysis confirmed.
Co-author Juan Palacios from the Sustainable Urbanization Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology said "we find that when individuals are exposed to higher levels of air pollution, they make more mistakes, and they make larger mistakes".
While the research focused exclusively on chess players, the researchers said it had implications for anyone required to make difficult or complex decisions in polluted areas, with a resulting overall economic cost to wider society.
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