Car exhaust makes kids stupid!
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FuzzBeast at 02.16.08 - 6:37 pm
The op requires a subscription to see the whole article but i fouind a full copy
03 January 2008
Magazine issue 2637
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726371.000;jsessionid=HEBLOJIMBLAC
Removing lead from petrol was supposed to prevent damage to children’s
mental development. Now it seems that traffic fumes may still be
impairing their learning - because of the soot particles it contains.
When Shakira Franco Suglia at Harvard University and her colleagues
studied 200 children in nearby Boston they found that scores on verbal
reasoning, visual learning and other tests were lower in those exposed
to more traffic fumes. The IQ of children from areas of the city with
above-average pollution levels was 3 points below those in cleaner
areas, even after controlling for socio-economic factors (American
Journal of Epidemiology, DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwm308).
That puts the impact of soot on a par with lead and other toxic
substances that damage brain development, says Franco Suglia.
Since soot levels rise with traffic volume, Franco Suglia recognises
that some other aspect of traffic may be the cause. However, …
*
Association of Black Carbon with Cognition among Children in a
Prospective Birth Cohort Study*
S. Franco Suglia et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology
Received for publication June 20, 2007. Accepted for publication
September 21, 2007.
aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/co…wm308v1
While studies show that ultrafine and fine particles can be translocated
from the lungs to the central nervous system, the possible
neurodegenerative effect of air pollution remains largely unexplored.
The authors examined the relation between black carbon, a marker for
traffic particles, and cognition among 202 Boston, Massachusetts,
children (mean age = 9.7 years (standard deviation, 1.7)) in a
prospective birth cohort study (1986–2001). Local black carbon levels
were estimated using a validated spatiotemporal land-use regression
model (mean predicted annual black carbon level, 0.56 µg/m3 (standard
deviation, 0.13)). The Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning and
the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test were administered for assessment of
cognitive constructs. In analysis adjusting for sociodemographic
factors, birth weight, blood lead level, and tobacco smoke exposure,
black carbon (per interquartile-range increase) was associated with
decreases in the vocabulary (–2.2, 95% confidence interval (CI): –5.5,
1.1), matrices (–4.0, 95% CI: –7.6, –0.5), and composite intelligence
quotient (–3.4, 95% CI: –6.6, –0.3) scores of the Kaufman Brief
Intelligence Test and with decreases on the visual subscale (–5.4, 95%
CI: –8.9, –1.9) and general index (–3.9, 95% CI: –7.5, –0.3) of the
Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning. Higher levels of black
carbon predicted decreased cognitive function across assessments of
verbal and nonverbal intelligence and memory constructs.
air pollution; child; cognition; intelligence; neurotoxicity syndromes;
particulate matter; soot; vehicle emissions
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; IQ, intelligence quotient;
K-BIT, Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test; SD, standard deviation; WRAML,
Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning
S. Franco Suglia1, A. Gryparis2, R. O. Wright1,3, J. Schwartz1,3 and R.
J. Wright3,4
1 Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health,
Boston, MA
2 Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Crete, Crete, Greece
3 Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical
School, Boston, MA
4 Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of
Public Health, Boston, MA
Correspondence to Dr. Shakira Franco Suglia, Department of Environmental
Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Landmark 415W, 401 Park Drive,
Boston, MA 02215 (e-mail: sfranco{at}hsph.harvard.edu).
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