Live near main roads due to developmental delays

According to researchers, young children living near a highway are more likely to experience developmental delays compared to those living further away from these roads.

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Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the University of California, Merced, found that young children living near busy roads were twice as likely to score below a test. screening of communication skills.

In addition, prenatal exposure to above-average levels of two traffic-related pollutants was badociated with an increased risk of developmental delays during infancy and early childhood.

Our findings suggest that it may be prudent to minimize exposure to air pollution during pregnancy, infancy and early childhood – all key periods for brain development. "

Pauline Mendola, lead author

Previous research has linked prenatal exposure to air pollutants, low birth weight, premature births, and stillbirths. Some studies have even shown a link between an increased risk of autism and a decrease in cognitive function in children living near highways.

However, the results of studies aimed at establishing a link between exposure to air pollution in infancy and developmental delays have been inconsistent.

Because many people living in the United States live near major highways, Mendola and her colleagues sought to find out whether children living near busy roads had lower scores on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire.

This validated screening test measures five areas of child development, including communication, fine motor skills, motor skills, problem solving, and personal social functioning.

Using data available for 5,825 people in the Northwestern KIDS study, the team compared participants' home address, mother's work address during pregnancy, and location of the daycare, to a set of data on the roadway. They calculated how close each address was to the nearest main road and a set of data from the Environmental Protection Agency was used to estimate the pollution levels of the environment. air at each place.

As reported in the newspaper Environmental researchchildren who lived only 0.3 kilometers from a highway were twice as likely to fail at least one screen in the reporting area of ​​the survey, compared to those who lived more than half a kilometer of such a road.

The team also badessed prenatal and postnatal exposure to two air pollutants produced by cars, namely inhalable ultra-fine particles (PM2.5) and ozone.

The badysis showed that prenatal exposure to high levels of PM2.5 was badociated with increased risk of failure in one of the areas of developmental screening. child, from 1.6 to 2.7%, while exposure to high levels of ozone increased the risk of failure from 0.7 to 1.7%. .

With regard to postnatal exposure to high levels of ozone, the risk of failure in most areas was increased by 3.3% at 8 months, by 17.7% for Overall failure at 24 months and 7.6% at 30 months.

Mendola and her team conclude that exposure to air pollutants during infancy and young children are badociated with a greater risk of developmental delay than prenatal exposure. However, the authors note that given the badociative nature of the study, the causes and effects can not be proven and that larger scale studies are needed to confirm the badociations.