Friday, July 24, 2009

Air pollution and IQ

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are pollutants released into the air from the burning of coal, diesel, oil and gas. Researchers from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York looked into the effect of PAHs on the IQs of children who had been exposed to them in the womb. They studied 249 children born to Black and Dominican-American women aged between 18 and 35. The women wore personal air monitors to measure their exposure to PAHs during their pregnancy and the children's IQs were measured when they were five. The study found that children exposed to high levels of PAHs while they were in the womb had IQs around 4.5 points lower than those who had been less exposed to the chemicals.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090720111453.htm

1 comment:

lee du ploy said...

MORE NEED THAN GREED.

I am a health professional currently researching the effect that air pollution has on the development on the brain its by factors and ultimate effect on older patients with dementia ............my feeling is that there is definitely a link between pollution and stress and its cousin anxiety.

We develop stress over unknown factors over which we have no control and the hidden hand of hyper tension and its consequences.

There are some situations over which we have some control but breathing is not one of them, we do not take the effects of pollution seriously enough.

We do this at our peril.

My research deals specifically on the potential causes of prosopagnosia , I do in part attribute that dementia on pollution.
I devote a chapter to this condition in my new book and hope that the effects of air pollution will be taken more seriously.

Air pollution in Hong Kong has to be dealt with if we want to secure a future for our children.

More need than greed

lee du ploy hk
"the glass facade"