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Climate Change as a Determinant of Mental and Physical Health: A Review
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This review pulls together decades of research showing that everyday pollutants, including air pollution, plastic-related chemicals, microplastics, pesticides, and heavy metals, are linked to depression, anxiety, fertility problems, and pregnancy complications. These substances seem to harm the body through shared pathways like inflammation and hormone disruption, with pregnant women and children most at risk, highlighting why reducing pollution exposure matters for both mental and reproductive health.
Objective: Environmental pollution is now a leading public health crisis around the world and fulfills the criteria of an environmental risk factor that impacts more than the well-recognized cardiopulmonary diseases; it is now recognized to affect mental, neurodevelopmental, reproductive, and pregnancy health as well. The goal of this review was to consolidate existing evidence on the effects of environmental pollutants, including air pollutants, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, pesticides, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and emerging pollutants such as microplastics, and the shared biological processes that connect these exposures to harmful health effects. Methods: A narrative review of all peer-reviewed publications from 2000 to 2025 was performed by searching through PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus and Web of Science. Studies examining associations of environmental pollutants and mental health, neurodevelopmental, reproductive, and pregnancy outcomes were reviewed with a focus on systematic reviews, meta-analyses, cohort studies, biomonitoring investigations, and mechanistic studies. Cumulative and lifelong environmental exposures were assessed by evidence synthesis based on the exposome framework. Results: The studied evidence shows consistent relationships between PM, NO 2 , bisphenols, phthalates, PFAS, pesticides, heavy metals (specifically lead, mercury, and cadmium), polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and microplastics and elevated risk of depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, impaired neurodevelopment, decreased semen quality, diminished fecundability, ovarian dysfunction, altered pubertal development, adverse pregnancy outcomes, placental injury, and fetal growth abnormalities. These harmful effects are achieved via common biological pathways such as oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, endocrine disruption, mitochondrial dysfunction, immune dysregulation, vascular injury, and epigenetic changes. There is also evidence that combined exposure to several pollutants can have additive or synergistic effects, and that sensitive groups to pollution exposure include pregnant women, children, and socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Conclusion: Pollution has emerged as an important and increasing concern from a life course perspective on mental and reproductive health. The exposome concept provides a simplified framework to understand cumulative environmental exposures and their health effects. Enforcing polluter accountability, curbing the use of hazardous substances, better monitoring exposure to pollution, better monitoring of reproductive and mental health outcomes, and incorporating pollution into public health policies are critical steps to curbing the disease burden of pollution and to safeguarding sensitive populations.
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Environmental Pollution Exposure and Its Impact on Mental and Reproductive Health: A Review
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This review of existing research shows that everyday pollutants, including air pollution, plastics chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, and microplastics, are linked to depression, anxiety, fertility problems, and pregnancy complications. These chemicals seem to harm the body through shared pathways like inflammation and hormone disruption, and exposure to multiple pollutants at once may cause more damage than any single one alone. Pregnant women, children, and lower-income communities appear especially vulnerable, highlighting the need for stronger pollution regulations.
Mitigation of Environmental Exposure, Pollutants, and Endocrine Disruptors to Reproductive Health: A Literature Review
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This PRISMA-compliant literature review synthesized evidence on how environmental pollutants including PM2.5, heavy metals, microplastics, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals affect women's reproductive health. All pollutant categories were associated with hormonal imbalances, menstrual irregularities, infertility, and adverse pregnancy outcomes through mechanisms including oxidative stress and epigenetic modifications.
Impacts of Air Pollution and Microplastics on Environmental Health in the Era of Climate Change
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This research review found that tiny plastic particles called microplastics are now being detected inside human bodies—in our blood, lungs, and digestive systems—while air pollution alone kills about 6.67 million people each year. The study shows these pollutants work together to harm our health, made worse by the fact that we're producing massive amounts of plastic (460 million tons in 2021) but recycling only 9% of it. This matters because it means we're facing multiple pollution threats at once that require urgent action to protect public health.
Environmental Pollution to Blame for Depressive Disorder?
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This review examines the link between endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) — many of which leach from plastics — and the development of major depressive disorder. Animal studies show EDC exposure can alter brain chemistry, cause neurodegeneration, and produce depression-like behaviors. The authors call for more research into whether plastic-associated chemicals contribute to rising rates of depression in the general population.
Microplastics, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, persistent environmental pollutants, oxidative stress, non-communicable diseases, particulate matter, heavy metals
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Everyday exposures—microplastics, chemicals that mess with your hormones, air pollution, heavy metals, and pesticides—may team up in your body to cause cell damage and inflammation linked to fertility problems, heart disease, developmental issues, and cancer. This review pulls together existing research to show these pollutants often share the same harmful pathways, which helps explain why chronic exposure adds up over time. While more long-term human studies are needed, the evidence is strong enough to matter for how we think about prevention and pollution regulations.
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