Pre-natal pollution behind low IQ among kids: Study

In simple words, PAH toxins present in the air if inhaled by pregnant woman can result in a child with a low intelligence quotient.

Frederica Perera, director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, (CCCEH) at Columbia University carried out this research that included 249 children who were born to non-smoking Black and Dominican American women residing in Washington Heights, Harlem or the South Bronx districts of New York.

The children were observed from the time they were in their mother’s womb to 5 years of age. The pregnant mothers were made to wear personal air monitors to measure exposure to PAH and they were later asked to fill-in a questionnaire.

The ‘Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of the Intelligence’ test that provides oral and full-scale IQ scores was conducted for these children at age 5.

Relatively Lower IQ
The US study found that these children had full scale and verbal IQ scores that were 4.31 and 4.67 points lower than those who were less exposed to PAH at prenatal time.

"These findings are of concern because these decreases in IQ could be educationally meaningful in terms of school performance," says Frederica Perera.

Patrick Breysse who is an environmental health specialist says, “The findings suggest that pre-natal exposure to air pollution could have the same harmful effects on brain development as lead exposure, and helps explain why inner city kids often do worse academically than wealthier youngsters.”

Not to panic
The present study is a major cause of worry as this could mean that pregnant women living in polluted areas has higher chances of bearing dull kids, but researchers show some hope.

They are now set to continue monitoring and testing these children to check if their school performance is impacted by this and also on any long term effects of this exposure.

Perera concludes, "The good news is that we have seen a decline in air pollution exposure in our cohort since 1998, testifying to the importance of policies to reduce traffic congestion and other sources of fossil fuel combustion byproducts."

The research has been published in the August issue of the US journal called ‘Pediatrics’.