A new study shows that children who are exposed to traffic air pollution frequently could have lung problems by the age of 8.
Infancy and the initial stages of a child's life is very crucial and it forms the foundation of how mentally stable and healthy he or she will be later in life.
A new study reveals that frequent exposure to traffic pollution could lead to disruption in lung functions in children up to the age of 8. This is more prominent in children sensitive to common allergens or asthmatic, the study says.
"Earlier studies have shown that children are highly susceptible to the adverse effects of air pollution and suggest that exposure early in life may be particularly harmful," said researcher Göran Pershagen, MD, PhD, professor at the Karolinska Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden. "In our prospective birth cohort study in a large population of Swedish children, exposure to traffic-related air pollution during infancy was associated with decreases in lung function at age eight, with stronger effects indicated in boys, children with asthma and particularly in children sensitized to allergens."
During the study, researchers looked into 1,900 children from the time they were born till they turned 8. During the course of the study, parents of the children were given questionnaires to fill out and spirometry and immunoglobulin measurements were conducted.
The researchers also looked into what chemicals and substances made up the air surrounding the children's daycares and schools.
A 5th to 95th percentile difference in time-weighted exposure to outdoor concentrations of particulate matter from road traffic during the first year of life was associated with a reduced forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) of -59.3 mL (95 percent confidence interval (CI): -113.0 to -5.6) at age eight, medical Xpress reported.
This was found prominent, particularly seen in children sensitive to common inhalant and/or food allergens and among boy, apart from children with asthma.
"Our study shows that early exposure to traffic-related air pollution has long-term adverse effects on respiratory health in children, particularly among atopic children," concluded Dr. Pershagen. "These results add to a large body of evidence demonstrating the detrimental effects of air pollution on human health."
The findings were published online ahead of print publication in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
