Traffic fumes are still damaging children's brains

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Related article follows the AJE abstract

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*Traffic fumes are still damaging children's brains*

* 03 January 2008

* Magazine issue 2637

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726371.000;jsessionid=HEBLOJIMBLAC

Removing lead from petrol was supposed to prevent damage to children's

mental development. Now it seems that traffic fumes may still be

impairing their learning - because of the soot particles it contains.

When Shakira Franco Suglia at Harvard University and her colleagues

studied 200 children in nearby Boston they found that scores on verbal

reasoning, visual learning and other tests were lower in those exposed

to more traffic fumes. The IQ of children from areas of the city with

above-average pollution levels was 3 points below those in cleaner

areas, even after controlling for socio-economic factors (American

Journal of Epidemiology, DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwm308).

That puts the impact of soot on a par with lead and other toxic

substances that damage brain development, says Franco Suglia.

Since soot levels rise with traffic volume, Franco Suglia recognises

that some other aspect of traffic may be the cause. However, ...

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*

Association of Black Carbon with Cognition among Children in a

Prospective Birth Cohort Study*

S. Franco Suglia et al.

American Journal of Epidemiology

Received for publication June 20, 2007. Accepted for publication

September 21, 2007.

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/kwm308v1

While studies show that ultrafine and fine particles can be translocated

from the lungs to the central nervous system, the possible

neurodegenerative effect of air pollution remains largely unexplored.

The authors examined the relation between black carbon, a marker for

traffic particles, and cognition among 202 Boston, Massachusetts,

children (mean age = 9.7 years (standard deviation, 1.7)) in a

prospective birth cohort study (1986--2001). Local black carbon levels

were estimated using a validated spatiotemporal land-use regression

model (mean predicted annual black carbon level, 0.56 µg/m3 (standard

deviation, 0.13)). The Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning and

the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test were administered for assessment of

cognitive constructs. In analysis adjusting for sociodemographic

factors, birth weight, blood lead level, and tobacco smoke exposure,

black carbon (per interquartile-range increase) was associated with

decreases in the vocabulary (--2.2, 95% confidence interval (CI): --5.5,

1.1), matrices (--4.0, 95% CI: --7.6, --0.5), and composite intelligence

quotient (--3.4, 95% CI: --6.6, --0.3) scores of the Kaufman Brief

Intelligence Test and with decreases on the visual subscale (--5.4, 95%

CI: --8.9, --1.9) and general index (--3.9, 95% CI: --7.5, --0.3) of the

Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning. Higher levels of black

carbon predicted decreased cognitive function across assessments of

verbal and nonverbal intelligence and memory constructs.

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air pollution; child; cognition; intelligence; neurotoxicity syndromes;

particulate matter; soot; vehicle emissions

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; IQ, intelligence quotient;

K-BIT, Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test; SD, standard deviation; WRAML,

Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning

S. Franco Suglia1, A. Gryparis2, R. O. 1,3, J. Schwartz1,3 and R.

J. 3,4

1 Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health,

Boston, MA

2 Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Crete, Crete, Greece

3 Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical

School, Boston, MA

4 Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of

Public Health, Boston, MA

Correspondence to Dr. Shakira Franco Suglia, Department of Environmental

Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Landmark 415W, 401 Park Drive,

Boston, MA 02215 (e-mail: sfranco{at}hsph.harvard.edu).

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*California's data challenge EPA*

The Golden State filed suit on Wednesday for the right to limit

greenhouse-gas emissions from autos.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0104/p02s01-usgn.html