Urban Air Pollution Linked to Birth Defects

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URBAN AIR POLLUTION LINKED TO BIRTH DEFECTS

LOS ANGELES, California, January 2, 2002 (ENS) - Exposure to two common air

pollutants may increase the chance that a pregnant woman will give birth to

a child with certain heart defects.

A study by researchers at the University of California - Los Angeles

provides the first compelling evidence that air pollution may play a role in

causing some birth defects.

Pregnant Los Angeles area women living in regions with higher levels of

ozone and carbon monoxide pollution were as much as three times as likely to

give birth to children who suffered from serious heart defects, shows the

study, published in the January 1 edition of the " American Journal of

Epidemiology. "

Researchers from the UCLA School of Public Health and the California Birth

Defects Monitoring Program found the risk for the birth defects increased

among women exposed to elevated amounts of the pollutants in the second

month of their pregnancy, a period when the heart and other organs begin

developing.

" The greater a woman's exposure to one of these two pollutants in the

critical second month of pregnancy, the greater the chance that her child

would have one of these serious cardiac birth defects, " said Beate Ritz, a

UCLA epidemiologist who headed the study. " More research needs to be done,

but these results present the first compelling evidence that air pollution

may play a role in causing some birth defects. "

Ritz said she was surprised that the study found an effect at the pollution

levels researchers studied.

" These findings show that there are more health problems caused by air

pollution than solely asthma and other respiratory illnesses, " Ritz said.

" There seems to be something in the air that can harm developing fetuses. "

The study also suggests that despite a significant decrease in urban air

pollution across the nation, there may be pollution problems that are not

yet understood.

" There has been a big reduction in the levels of criteria air pollutants

like ozone and carbon monoxide over the years, " Ritz said. " But there still

may be air toxics and fine particles or other secondary pollutants that

occur alongside carbon monoxide and ozone, but which we don't measure

routinely or know about, and those things may pose health risks we don't yet

understand. "

Researchers conducted the study by matching air pollution monitoring

information collected by regional air quality officials with information

from the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program.

" The birth defects registry is an exquisite investigational tool. Because of

this resource we are able to intensify the search for causes of birth

defects, " said , chief of the California Birth Defects Monitoring

Program. " One in 33 babies in the United States is born with a serious birth

defect - the leading cause of infant death. This kind of research is not a

luxury. Studies like this one on air pollution give us critical leads to

follow up with further research. "

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