Some people may argue, “So what if it’s hot? It’s summer.” However, last weekend and some days before that, with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees, I couldn’t disagree more.
I find myself on such days to feel foggy brained and out of breath. My allergy symptoms flare.
My clients, however, are a wealth of information. One individual, who was also suffering such effects, reminded me of the role of air pollution and ozone levels that rocket when the temperature is so high. Duh! No wonder she and I both felt awful. I heard similar anecdotal reports from other clients.
I checked the Internet for air pollution levels and sure enough our locale was in the orange zone for high ozone levels. Unlike its partners in crime — smog and particulate pollution — ozone is invisible, but it is the heavy oxygen that gets formed through various gas exhausts, including lawn mowers.
Most of us are aware that air pollution is good for no one and is especially detrimental to the health of children, the elderly and people with lung conditions or asthma.
But I also discovered this week, in the midst of my heavy headedness, a report in the American Psychological Association Monitor (Jul/Aug, 2012), that there is now research linking air pollution to both cognitive decline in the elderly, and to deleterious effects on the cognitive development of the young.
The neuro-scientific and psychological research is ongoing, and there are many questions to be answered. However, the results thus far point to a direct link of air pollution to negative effects on central nervous system function — our brains. If mercury made the hatter mad, surely breathing in environmental toxins that can pass the blood-brain barrier don’t do us any good either.
The Environmental Protection Agency EPA has not included psychological research in their analyses of pollution yet. It is a hope that not just the EPA, but that we all will consider the impact of pollution on our aging brains as well as the developing minds of our children and grandchildren.
Facts regarding Ambient Ozone Ground Level: “Bad ozone” is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight. Emissions from industry, electric utilities, vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors and chemicals, are the major sources, according to the EPA. The high altitude ozone layer is protective, down at earth, ozone is harmful to the breath.
* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at [email protected] or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to http://www.drgajdos.com.

About Kayta Gajdos
Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.
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