Written by David Gutierrez
Picture: Air pollution in NYC is at the lowest level then it's ever been at, but something still needs to be done to stop the spread of PAH.
Summary:
According to researchers who conducted an experiment on pregnant, non-smoking women living in New York City, air pollution can affect the child's IQ level. During the womens' pregnancies they wore air monitors so that accurate data could be given on the amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that they were
exposed to. After the children were born
they were to take an IQ test at the age of 5. The test showed evidence that air
pollution does affect a child's IQ level. The children of mothers with high PAH
levels were scoring a signifigantly lower score, about 4.31-4.61 lower than
average. Research before this had already shown that PAH exposure can lead to
cancer and damage the neurological and reproductive systems.
Opinion/Reflection
I was really surprised. If I were a mother I would never
want such thing to happen to my kid because of air pollution. I would do
anything to stay away from that so that my kid did not have to live with
neurological disabilities. In another way, I think this is all based on where
people live. If someone is living in a much more urban area, then these chances
are definitely a lot more likely, but for people living in rural areas it's
probably less likely to have as much of an effect on their children. Again, I
am just basing that off the fact that this experiment was done on 2 women who
live in NYC. Living in a city, I can see why their children have suffered this,
because there are much more fumes from cars, industries, etc. After all, the
leading cause of the pollutant PAH is exhaust from automobiles.
Questions:
1.) Are there any other possible side effects on the
children who are exposed to PAH?
2.) How could mothers stop this from being so likely when
living in a city?
3.) How often does it occur that kids have lower IQ levels
when exposed to PAH?
4.) Is there a way to stop this from happening to even more
families in the future?
Opinion/Reflection: What a crazy article! It was very interesting to read about..I've never heard of such a thing! However, it is quite sad knowing that air pollution (most likely created by humans burning fossil fuels) are reducing children's IQ. If children are not learning and being well educated due to air pollution, then imagine what the air pollution is doing to the rest of their bodies, not just their brain and way of learning. I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia (our major city), so it would be common for our air pollution to be less than the city's level of air pollution. Cities have more industries, cars that release their fumes into the air, and probably will have more air pollution than people who do not live in the city...like me! This article was very interesting, and hopefully made people aware and alert of the affects of air pollution.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to question 4: Of course there is a solution! Remember: anything is possible :) But really, over time when people start to be aware of the dangerous affects of air pollution (such as lower IQ levels in children), they will hopefully start to cut back on releasing pollution into the air. Maybe we will decrease industry rates and discover away to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we burn. Although both are highly unlikey, you never know! We can only hope!
Opinion/Reflection
ReplyDeleteI found this really suprising because I thought that air pollution only affected the respitory system, but learning that it is affecting a child's IQ level is shocking. I can only imagine what would happen to the IQ levels if air pollution keeps getting worse. Education is a very important part in a child's develpoment, and knowing that air pollution is affecting it signifigantly, worries me about the greater affects it could have. Although I think this is a problem, I think the study should have been done at different ages to really see the long term impact. The children should also have IQ test as they get older, to see if air pollution is causing long term affects. This impacts me because air pollution is a problem that is having more and more of an affect on people as it gets worse. I don't live in a city to the amount of PAH I take in is lower then those who live in a city. People who live in a city or highly air polluted area, may not be aware of the affects on them and their children.
Answer to Question:
2) I think it is pretty hard for mothers who live in cities to reduce their air pollution intake because of all the exhaust and emissions being released. In order to limit their intake they would mostly likly have to stay indoors and limit the amount of time they spend outside. This is hard because people, especcially mothers, need to get fresh air every now and then. I think people should find a way to reduce the amount of pollution we are releasing into the atmosphere, because this would cause a major impact on higher IQ levels.
Opinion and Reflection: I have heard of this happening before, after all, there is even a section in the hazard level of air pollution labeled "harmful to the sensitive". Pregnant people are under that category, and of course their unborn baby. I think pregnant women should be more cautious of living and going outside in areas like this, but right now, we cannot expect them to pick up and move just because of the air pollution. It is really scary, and our future generation's intelligence is at stake because of this. Since they have to wait 5 years to perform the IQ test considering the children need to be able to understand the directions, maybe the children should be re-tested at a later time. Cities like this should also warn their citizens of this hazard before they move into homes because not everyone is aware of this danger. I think the government should really be funding research and intensives for companies who release the least amount of pollution. To me, this issue should be taken more seriously and put out there more publicly, our future depends on it.
ReplyDeleteExpansion:
http://www.stateoftheair.org/2012/key-findings/infographics/most-polluted-cities-in-the-united-states-2012.html
I was curious to even see how highly NYC ranked on the list of the most polluted cities in our country. The link above not only shows that NYC is not on the top ten list, but what kind of pollution each city carries. California takes the cake with the most polluted cities. The fact that NYC was not on there was very surprising!
Our Pittsburg is one of the top ten, and this picture looks just as bad! Here's the link:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2008/20080501_losangeles.jpg