Air pollution responsible for dark spots

Recently a study was done on the effects of air pollution on skin and shockingly it was found that the air pollution and other gases related to it are responsible for the formation of dark spots on the skin. Majorly these effects were observed in cheeks of Asian women who are mostly aged above 50 according to the researchers.

This study was done in Germany by Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine and one of the lead investigator told that in addition to particulate matter, traffic related air pollution is characterized by increased concentration of nitrogen dioxide.

Not just this exposure to NO2 is also associated with low lung function and lung cancer and this is the first time a study was conducted on its effects on skin.


There were two groups made for the study, first one contains 806 Caucasian German women who were part of the SALIA (Study on the influence of Air pollution on Lung function, Inflammation and ageing). The average age of the participants was 73.5 years and out of them nearly 20% were past smokers. Also these women spent averagely 2.6 hours in the sunlight.

Whereas the second group included 743 Han Chinese women from the Taizhou region who were bit younger as compared to the SALIA group with an average age of 59 years and again 20% of them had been smoking in the past with daily sun exposure of 3.5 hours.

So there was no link found between levels of No2 and formation of dark spots called lentigenes on the back of the forearms and hands but NO2 exposure was significantly found associated with more lentigenes on the cheeks in the participants of both groups.

Lentigenes are also known as liver spots and are small darkened areas of the skin. In starting they are very small in size but later they may enlarge and separate patched may merge and commonly found on forearm, cheeks, face, and upper trunk.