Air pollution exposure linked to poor academic skills during childhood

Children living in areas with high levels of air pollution have weaker spelling, reading and maths skills, a new study warns. They also have poorer levels of inhibitory control – the cognitive ability to stop an automatic thought, action or feeling, the study claims. The authors recruited pregnant women from three areas in New York City – Washington Heights, Central Harlem and the South Bronx. They recorded levels of exposure to a carcinogenic pollutant and followed up on their child's performance around a decade later. While the reason for the link remains unconfirmed, the researchers suggest that exposure to the pollutant may affect disrupt the development of the fetus in the womb. During the fetal period, the rapidly-developing brain is vulnerable to'neurotoxic insults', the researchers say, that may subsequently manifest'as adverse physical and mental health outcomes in childhood and adulthood'.