Young children who live near a
major roadway are at greater risk of developmental delays because of
traffic-related pollutants, concluded a new study published in the journal
Environmental Research. They were twice as likely to score lower on tests of
communications skills, compared to those who live farther away from a major
roadway.
An additional finding from the
study was that the offspring of women who were exposed to high levels of
ultra-fine airborne particles and ozone (traffic-related pollutants) during
pregnancy were also at risk of developmental delays during infancy and early
childhood.
Data from the Upstate KIDS
Study was analyzed. The addresses of 5,825 study participants to a roadway data
set were matched, calculating the distance of each address to the nearest major
roadway. The home address, mother’s work address during pregnancy and address
of the child’s day care location were matched to an Environmental Protection
Agency data set to estimate the levels of air pollution.
Fine motor skills, large motor
skills, communication, personal social functioning and problem-solving ability
were evaluated for each child.
· Compared
to children living more than half a mile from a major roadway, children living
from roughly 164 feet to .3 miles from a major roadway were twice as likely to
have failed at least one screen of the communications domain.
· Prenatal
exposure to raised PM2.5 was also associated with a 1.6 to 2.7% higher risk of
failing any developmental domain, while higher ozone exposure resulted in a .7
to 1.7% higher risk of failing a developmental domain.
· Higher
postnatal exposure to ozone was linked to a 3.3% higher risk of failing most
domains of the developmental screen at 8 months, a 17.7% higher risk of overall
screening failure at 24 months, and a 7.6% higher risk of overall screening
failure at 30 months.
Exposure to pollution during
pregnancy has been shown to be associated with low birthweight, preterm birth
and stillbirth in earlier studies.
What this study has shown is
that exposure to air pollutants during early childhood is associated with a
higher risk for developmental delay, compared to similar exposures in the womb.
While the study has only
demonstrated an association and not a causal relationship, these findings do
bring out one more aspect of the harmful effects of air pollution and highlight
the need to control the rising levels of air pollution.
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
President Elect Confederation of
Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania
(CMAAO)
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President Heart Care Foundation of
India
Past National President
IMA
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