Skincare To Help You Fight Against The Damaging Effects Of Air Pollution

Pollution is waging war on your complexion, new research shows. But derms are finding ways to fight back and win.

You can’t usually see it and you probably don’t feel it, but there’s a lot of junk floating in the air. As we’re now learning, it’s hitting our skin hard. In just the last few years,scientists have been studying the dermal effects of particulate matter, gases and other stealthy airborne attackers wafting around our cities, and it’s pretty clear these pollutants are ageing us.

One of the most convincing studies, conducted at the Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Germany, looked at how some 2,000 women had fared health-wise after 20 years of living with extra grimy air in their polluted region. “We found a strong association between pigmentation spots on their cheeks and high pollution levels,” says Dr Jean Krutmann, the institute’s director. Specifically, the women who were exposed to high levels of particulate matter, like soot and traffic pollution, had 20 per cent more age spots and more pronounced wrinkles than those living in rural areas.

Since the publication of these findings in 2010, experts have learnt more about how pollution causes us to age. And what they have uncovered may motivate you to step up your skincare.

The pollution-ageing connection

Scientists from Olay, L’Oreal and other major beauty companies have also begun exploring the link between pollution and skin problems.

One Estee Lauder study, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, showed that particulate matter (PM) causes oxidative stress in the skin, the result of damaging molecules like free radicals overwhelming your defence mechanisms and including DNA destruction, both of which can lead to premature signs of ageing.

As its name suggests, PM is minuscule dust or soot particles of metals, carbon and other compounds. Its sources include car exhaust and garbage incinerator smoke.