Pollution Free Cities: Hyperactivity of Children exposed to Traffic-related Pollution

Friday, June 21, 2013

Hyperactivity of Children exposed to Traffic-related Pollution

map (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Traffic-Related Air Pollution Exposure in the First Year of Life and Behavioral Scores at Seven Years of Age(26 page pdf, Nicholas Newman, Patrick Ryan, Grace LeMasters, Linda Levin, David Bernstein, Gurjit K. Khurana Hershey, James E. Lockey, Manuel Villareal, Tiina Reponen, Sergey Grinshpun, Heidi Sucharew, and Kim N. Dietrich, Environmental Health Perspectives, May 21, 2013)

Also quoted here: Early-Life Traffic-Related Air Pollution Exposure Linked to Hyperactivity
(HealthCanal, May 21, 2013)

Today we review research that looked at the link between exposure to air pollution from traffic with hyperactivity in children. This is a particularly important question because so many schools in the USA and Canada are located near busy roads and highways (40% within 400 m in the USA and even more worrisome, 50% within 50 m in Ottawa, Canada). Results indicate that there is a significant link for children of parents with higher than average education- a curious result which seems in turn to be associated with the impact of traffic-related pollution on brain development.

Key Quotes:

“Early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7“

"There is increasing concern about the potential effects of traffic-related air pollution on the developing brain….This impact is not fully understood due to limited epidemiological studies.”

"Several biological mechanisms could explain the association between hyperactive behaviors and traffic-related air pollution,…including narrowed blood vessels in the body and toxicity in the brain’s frontal cortex.”

“studies have shown that approximately 11 percent of the U.S. population lives within 100 meters of a four-lane highway and that 40 percent of children attend school within 400 meters of a major highway”