Brain Smog
July 24, 2009 - by Molly Mann
The Associated Press reported on Monday that researchers have concretely linked prenatal exposure to air pollution with lower IQ scores in childhood. Does this mean that we're less intelligent than our grandparents (I'm sure some of them would say so), or that our children and grandchildren will be less intelligent, as a whole, than we are?
The study, which was published in the August edition of Pediatrics, examined 249 children of women who wore backpack air monitors for 48 hours during their final months of pregnancy. These women lived in predominantly low-income neighborhoods in New York City, such as northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. All of the mothers were exposed to pollution from vehicle exhaust and factory emissions, which contain the placenta-crossing pollutants polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Right before the children started school at age five, they all had their IQs tested. The children who were exposed to the most pollution before birth scored four to five points lower, on average, than those who had less prenatal exposure. According to the study's lead author and Director of the Columbia center for Children's Environmental Health, Frederica Perera, that's enough of a difference to affect a chidren's performance in school.
We already know that pollution is bad, both for ourselves and for the planet, but this study gives us hard numbers to show that we are really hurting our children's brains by exposing them to polluting chemicals before theyr'e even born. We live in an amazing, post-industrial economy, in which new technologies surprise us every day with our capabilities. But we must also remember that we need to care for the next generation of humans to run this economy, to protect their brains and hearts so that they may lead us with intelligence and compassion.
