Womb air-pollution exposure hurts child - impaired cognition, developmental delays

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Despite findings such as those described in cite-2, the goal of

consistency with High Orthodoxy necessitates we conclude that neither

amalgams nor thimerosal is injurious. Individuals who challenge

orthodoxy would improve longevity by heeding lessons of Giordano Bruno.

* * * *

*Womb air-pollution exposure hurts child* (1)

http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20060426-014530-3894r

NEW YORK, April 26 (UPI) -- The children of New York City women who did

not smoke during pregnancy but who were exposed to air pollutants had

lower mental development test scores.

Researchers from the Columbia University's Mailman School of Public

Health studied a sample of 183 3-year-old children of non-smoking

African-American and Dominican women residing in several New York City

neighborhoods.

Study leader Dr. Frederica Perera found that exposure during pregnancy

to combustion-related urban air pollutants, known as polycyclic aromatic

hydrocarbons, or PAHs, were linked to significantly lower scores on

mental development tests and more than double the risk of developmental

delay at age 3. Such delay in cognitive development is indicative of

greater risk for performance deficits in language, reading and math in

the early school years, according to Perera.

The children who were exposed in the womb to the highest levels of PAHs

scored on average 5.7 points, or 6.3 percent lower on cognitive tests

than the less exposed children; and their risk of being developmentally

delayed was 2.9 times greater than that of children who had lower

prenatal exposure. Both results were statistically significant,

according to the study published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights

Reserved

1. Perera FP, Rauh V, Whyatt RM, Tsai W-Y, Tang D, D, Hoepner L,

Barr D, Tu Y-H, Camann D, and Kinney P. 2006. *

Effect of Prenatal Exposure to Airborne Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

on Neurodevelopment in the First Three Years of Life Among Inner-City

Children*/

Environ Health Perspect/: doi:10.1289/ehp.9084. [Online 24 April 2006]

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2006/9084/abstract.html

*2: *Ann Epidemiol. <javascript:AL_get(this, 'jour', 'Ann Epidemiol.');>

2005 Nov 4; [Epub ahead of print] Related Articles

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed & cmd=Display & dopt=pubmed\

_pubmed & from_uid=16275013>

*Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Mercury on Cognitive and Psychomotor

Function in One-Year-Old Infants: Epidemiologic Cohort Study in Poland.*

Jedrychowski W, Jankowski J, Flak E, Skarupa A, Mroz E, Sochacka-Tatara

E, Lisowska-Miszczyk I, Szpanowska-Wohn A, Rauh V, Skolicki Z, Kaim I,

Perera F.

From the Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (W.J., E.F.,

A.S., E.M., E.S.-T.), Obstetrics and Gynecology (I.K.), and the

Departments of Neonatology (I.L.-M.) and Hygiene and Ecology (A.S.-W.),

College of Medicine, Jagiellonian University, Krakow. Poland; Obstetrics

and Gynecology (Z.S.), Municipal Hospital, Krakow, Poland; Department of

Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York (J.J.);

Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Mailman School

Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY (V.R., F.P.); and

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA (K.C., R.J.).

PURPOSE: The aim of the study is to assess the cognitive and psychomotor

status of 1-year-old infants whose mothers were exposed to low, but

varying, amounts of mercury during pregnancy. METHODS: Mercury levels in

cord and maternal blood at delivery were used to assess prenatal

environmental exposure to mercury. Bayley Scales of Infant Development

were used to assess neurobehavioral health outcomes. The cohort

consisted of 233 infants who were born at 33 to 42 weeks of gestation

between January 2001 and March 2003 to mothers attending ambulatory

prenatal clinics in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy.

Enrollment included only nonsmoking women with singleton pregnancies

between the ages of 18 and 35 years who were free from chronic diseases.

RESULTS: The geometric mean (GM) for maternal blood mercury level for

the group of infants with normal neurocognitive performance was lower

(GM = 0.52 mug/L; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.46-0.58) than that

observed in the group with delayed performance (GM = 0.75 mug/L; 95% CI,

0.59-0.94), and this difference was significant (p = 0.010). The GM of

cord blood mercury level in the normal group also was lower (GM = 0.85

mug/L; 95% CI, 0.78-0.93) than that observed in the group with delayed

performance (GM = 1.05 mug/L; 95% CI, 0.87-1.27), and this difference

was of borderline significance (p = 0.070). The relative risk (RR) for

delayed performance increased more than threefold (RR = 3.58; 95% CI,

1.40-9.14) if cord blood mercury level was greater than 0.80 mug/L. Risk

for delayed performance in the group of infants with greater maternal

mercury levels (>0.50 mug/L) also was significantly greater (RR = 2.82;

95% CI, 1.17-6.79) compared with children whose mothers had mercury

levels less than 0.50 mug/L. CONCLUSIONS: The results may be of public

health importance because delayed psychomotor or mental performance in

infants is assumed to be an indicator of later neurocognitive

development in children, which may persist into adult life.

PMID: 16275013

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