Study links bad air and birth defects

[Guest guest]

An interesting study.

What does bad air have to do with liver ?

If liver/gb does not function properly, toxins acumulate inside body and

inside liver/gb, causing birth defects.

If you can not change the air you breath, you can improve your liver and

your diet.

One good reason to do liver flush before you get pregnat.

My name is Agnes, not Agnus.

It is Scandinavian name, common in Estonia, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Regards

Agnes

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Study links bad air and birth defects

http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/12/16/smog.birth.defects.ap/index.html

December 16, 2001

LOS ANGELES (AP) --

For years, scientists have known of a correlation between air quality and

infant illnesses. Now for the first time a Southern California study links

air pollution and birth defects.

The University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) study shows that the

harmful effects of dirty air can extend even into the womb, the Los Angeles

Times reported Sunday.

" Smog can harm the health of babies, " said Beate Ritz, an epidemiologist at

UCLA's Center for Occupational and Environmental Health who conducted the

study.

" This should make us pause. Air pollution doesn't just impact asthmatics

and old people at the end of life, but it can affect people at the

beginning of their life, and that can disadvantage people throughout their

life. "

The study, to be published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is

scheduled to be released December 28.

More than a dozen studies in the United States, Brazil, Europe, Mexico,

South Korea and Taiwan have linked smog to low birth weight, premature

births, stillbirths and infant deaths.

But the latest research found that women exposed to high levels of ozone

and carbon monoxide were three times more likely than others to have babies

with cleft lips and palates and defective heart valves.

Researchers looked at thousands of pregnant women in the Los Angeles area

from 1987 to 1993, and compared those living in areas with relatively dirty

air to those living in cleaner areas.

Virtually the entire study area, bounded roughly by San Bernardino, Santa

Ana and Santa Clarita, met federal standards for carbon monoxide, and much

of the region complied with ozone requirements.

Scientists found that the greatest risk occurs during the second month of

pregnancy, when a fetus develops most of its organs and much of its facial

structure.

Most of the studies about smog and babies came after the Clinton

administration set new federal limits for ozone and microscopic particles.

Officials with the United States Environmental Protection Agency say that

before those standards can be strengthened, more research is needed to

determine which pollutants are most harmful and at what stage of pregnancy

they do the most damage.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may

not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.