Luchtvervuiling maakt kinderen minder slim*
Uit een kleine Amerikaanse studie blijkt dat kinderen die blootgesteld worden aan luchtvervuiling een lager IQ hebben. De grootste boosdoeners zijn stoffen die vrijkomen bij verbranding van fossiele brandstoffen en tabak. De onderzoekers volgden 249 kinderen van vrouwen in en rond New York. Vooral polycyclische aromatische koolwaterstoffen (PAK's) werden onderzocht. Dat zijn chemicaliën die in de lucht terechtkomen bij de verbranding van olie, gas, steenkool of tabak. Als de kinderen vijf jaar oud waren legden ze een intelligentietest af. Daarbij werden factoren zoals de kwaliteit van de kinderzorg, passief roken en de opleidingsgraad van de moeder meegerekend. Van de 249 kinderen bleken er 140 blootgesteld aan hoge niveaus van PAK's. Die kinderen bleken ook 4,31 tot 4,67 punten lager te scoren op de IQ-test dan de kinderen die minder blootgesteld waren aan de vervuilende stoffen.
Prenatal Airborne Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure and Child IQ at Age 5 Years
Frederica P. Perera, DrPHa,b, Zhigang Li, MPSa,b,c, Robin Whyatt, DrPHa,b, Lori Hoepner, MPHa,b, Shuang Wang, PhDa,b,c, David Camann, MSd and Virginia Rauh, ScDa,b
a Department of Environmental Health Sciences
b Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health
c Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York
d Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas
OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the relationship between prenatal exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and child intelligence.
METHODS: Children of nonsmoking black or Dominican-American women residing in New York City were monitored from in utero to 5 years of age, with determination of prenatal PAH exposure through personal air monitoring for the mothers during pregnancy. At 5 years of age, intelligence was assessed for 249 children by using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised. Multivariate linear regression models were used to estimate and to test the associations between prenatal PAH exposure and IQ.
RESULTS: After adjustment for maternal intelligence, quality of the home caretaking environment, environmental tobacco smoke exposure, and other potentially confounding factors, high PAH levels (above the median of 2.26 ng/m3) were inversely associated with full-scale IQ (P = .007) and verbal IQ (P = .003) scores. Children in the high-exposure group had full-scale and verbal IQ scores that were 4.31 and 4.67 points lower, respectively, than those of less-exposed children ( 2.26 ng/m3). The associations between logarithmically transformed, continuous, PAH levels and these IQ measures also were significant (full-scale IQ: β = –3.00; P = .009; verbal IQ: β = –3.53; P = .002).
CONCLUSION: These results provide evidence that environmental PAHs at levels encountered in New York City air can affect children's IQ adversely.
PEDIATRICS Vol. 124 No. 2 August 2009, pp. e195-e202 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-3506)
(Augustus
2009)
