The Toxic Toll of Pollution

Air pollution has been tied to stroke, kidney disease, heart attacks and more. The list continues to grow and new studies indicate this regularly.

Big deal, right? Pollution is one of those things that we often ignore as adults because it’s someone else’s problem — or we wonder what sort of impact it’s really having on us. But when it directly affects our kids, we become concerned.

A 2015 study in PLOS Medicine, a peer-reviewed open-access medical journal, linked traffic-related air pollution to slower cognitive development in children ages 7 to 10 in Barcelona. And now a new study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry has found that air pollutant exposure during pregnancy can predispose children to issues regulating their thoughts, emotions and behaviors as they grow.

This is the first study to assess the effects of early life exposure to a common air pollutant known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on self-regulating behaviors and social competence. Kids who have poor self-regulation skills have a hard time taming disruptive thoughts, emotions and impulses. This can also impact their ability to socialize.

Prenatal exposure to PAH has been linked to ADHD, anxiety, depression, and other behavioral disorders.

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Researchers found that children whose mothers had higher exposure to PAH during pregnancy had significantly poorer scores on evaluations at ages 9 and 11 than children whose mothers had lower exposure. Over time, low-exposure children developed and improved in a self-regulatory function, but the kids exposed at high levels did not.

“We’ve already seen that prenatal PAH exposure is associated with significant developmental delay by age 3, reduced verbal IQ at age 5, symptoms of anxiety and depression at age 7, and reductions in brain white matter,” Dr. Frederica Perera, director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, told LifeZette.

“Now we are seeing that the children with high prenatal exposure had worse scores on tests of emotional self-regulation at ages 9 and 11. (There were) also deficits in social competence at age 11,” she added.

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This isn’t the first study of air pollution and its effects on pregnant mothers. A 2015 study in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology found that it caused lower IQs in children. A 2013 study in Pediatrics found that a child’s development can be impacted by a stressed-out mother who is exposed to air pollutants. A 2012 study even tied this to childhood obesity.

Can we avoid PAHs and therefore limit their effects? These are mainly emitted domestically from burning coal, oil, gas, garbage, wood, or other organic substances — these are the main domestic sources. PAHs also come from industrial sources, and from cars, planes and ships.

Ways to avoid PAHs include using kitchen fans while cooking, and avoiding blackened or charred food. Try not to use incense or candles inside the home — and avoid being near people who are smoking.

Perera said using air filters can limit air pollutant exposure, too.