They may not breathe air or even have lungs yet, but the ash, car exhaust and dust from air pollution may affect the development of fetuses, a new study of pregnant mothers suggests. (commonhealth)
Those effects might contribute to certain health consequences later in life, said Dr. Rosalind Wright, a professor of pediatric medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and one of the study's authors.
Wright and Cowell studied 237 women from Boston and their children. While the women were pregnant, the researchers measured the amount of air pollution in their neighborhoods daily, using a mix of air monitors and satellite data. The team, which reported the findings Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, cautioned that the effects they observed still need to be replicated by other researchers. But the stress response and heart rate variability observed by the team might set these kids up for certain negative health outcomes later in life, such as worse heart health and mental illness.
“The leading hypothesis is that air pollution is leading to stress and inflammation of the placenta,” he said, and that increased inflammation might harm the baby's heart rate system.
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