Is air pollution making your kids stupid?
Little Bobby-Jo and Billy-Sue not doing so well at their readin' and writin' these days? You might want to think about finding a house a little further from the interstate.
A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health has found that kids who grow up in neighbourhoods with lots of traffic pollution score lower in intelligence and memory tests than those who don't. Strong exposure to black carbon (a majpr particulate component of truck and car exhaust) is linked to an average 3.4 point drop in IQ, as well as poorer scores on memory and cognition tests. The effect is comparable to children who have been exposed to lead, or whose mothers smoked 10 cigarettes a day during pregnancy.
What's suprising is not that constant ingestion of brain-melting toxins can have an impact on a child's IQ, but that it took so long for someone to do a study that proves it. See - one more way that electric cars improve society.
_thumbnail.jpg)
In Oregon: A Gym Powered By Exercise
Blankets & Coats Re-Purposed for Pets
Obama Poses with Three Legged Baby
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-20-2008 @ 4:32AM
JohnSearle said...
This study links black carbon to lower IQ scores, but admits the link may be spurious.
Read the section label discussion; it states several other possibilities for the results. It admits socioeconomic status may be the cause of both the high black carbon levels, and the lower IQ scores, which IMO is more probably the cause. Also, they state that traffic noise, statistical error, and/or the the size of the sample might also cause problems. It suggests further studies are needed to determine the full effects of the pollution.
I would like a study that goes into greater detail about the socioeconomic factor. It has long been known that those with lower incomes end up in poor living conditions (near roadways, etc.), and as a result have lower IQ scores. Socioeconomic status is also linked to parental IQ scores, and parents teach their children dietary habits (linked to IQ), work habits (linked to IQ), and general interests (such as reading, as opposed to watching large amounts of TV). This is my guess for the correlation.
- John
Reply