Air pollution exposure linked to higher rates of asthma in children

Women who are exposed to high levels of air pollution while pregnant are more likely to have children with asthma.

Pregnant women have enough to worry about while carrying their baby to term, a time period that can often feel overwhelming and scary. In addition to avoiding alcohol for nine months, mothers-to-be must also be wary of something that is often not within their control: The air that they breathe. A new study has found that women who are exposed to high levels of air pollution during the second trimester of their pregnancy greatly increase their child’s risk of developing asthma during their lives.

The new study will be presented by the research team this week during the annual American Thoracic Society International Conference. In order to conduct the study, the researchers followed 430 children from the time they were born until age seven, as well as their mothers. Where each mother lived during her pregnancy was crucial to the study, as the team was able to estimate the amount of air pollution that they were exposed to while pregnant.

“We know that mothers’ exposure to air pollution during pregnancy can affect lung development of their babies and lead to subsequent respiratory disorders, including asthma, although little is known about whether timing of the exposure is important to consider,” Dr. Yueh-Hsiu Mathilda Chiu, the lead researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, said in the study.

All kinds of air pollution were taken into account for this study. Urban children were found to have higher rates of asthma, as there is a higher exposure to particle air pollution on a regular basis, from cars and other city buildings. According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly seven million children in the United States currently suffer from asthma.

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