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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Children living in the most polluted cities during pregnancy are more likely to develop autism, according to a recent study by researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada.
Autism is a type of neurological disorder that causes poor social interaction in children and their ability to communicate with their environment. Autism affects the process of processing data in the brain. The diagnostic criteria require that the symptoms become clear before the child reaches the age of 3 years and that the causes are poorly understood. Scientists are now trying to explore environmental factors that may play a role in the risk of infection, including air pollution.
Air pollution is one of the most important environmental problems threatening human health. According to the World Bank, air pollution is currently the fourth risk factor for premature death, accounting for one in ten deaths worldwide, resulting in losses. huge in terms of well-being and income. .
The study was based on the examination of autism rates among children born from 2004 to 2009 in Vancouver, Canada, in conjunction with the measurement of air pollution in the environment in which children mothers lived during their pregnancy.
The Group measured three main pollutants: airborne particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns, emitted mainly from industrial sources, nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide.
When children reached the age of five, an autism spectrum disorder was diagnosed in 1% of participants. The researchers also reported a 7% increase in the risk of autism for every 11 milliseconds of nitric oxide in the environment.
Nitric oxide is one of the air pollutants emitted by vehicle exhaust gases and plays an important role in the influence on neurological functions, blood pressure, immune system, as well as metabolic and metabolic disorders. pulmonary diseases.
A previous study found that children living in areas where airborne particles were common increased their risk of developing mental disability by 33%, but also in areas where the levels of oxides Nitrogen and carbon monoxide were high. Children with mental disabilities reach 30%, while in areas with high levels of sulfur dioxide, this percentage is 17%.
This study is one of the most important on the environmental factors that have played a role in autism up to now, although it was conducted in a city in Canada where the level of Pollution is relatively low, which indicates that one should be wary of the lack of safe exposure to air pollution.
The researchers explained that they usually combine with hemoglobin, a substance that transfers oxygen to the blood and supplies it to the body and brain, thus preventing adequate access of oxygen. to the brain, causing brain cell damage that can not be restored. On the mental abilities and intelligence of children.
The study found that damage to brain cells is usually important. It is known that neurosurgery is non-regenerative, as is the case with cutaneous cells, but that the most serious damage caused by an infection occurs during the fetal period, the placenta and, during the first two years of birth, the period during which the human brain completes its development and development.
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