Air pollution exposure during pregnancy linked with asthma risk

Photo Credit: medicaldaily.com

"Babies born to mothers exposed to air pollution from traffic sources during pregnancy have an increased risk of developing asthma before the age of 5 years, according to new findings.

Published yesterday (09 February, 2016) in the European Respiratory Journal, the new research is one of the largest studies to look at the role of variation in air pollution in urban areas and the development of asthma.

Over 65,000 Canadian children were included in the study and followed up from birth until the age of 10 years. The researchers monitored physician-diagnosed asthma cases among this group and also assessed exposure of the mother's to air pollutants during pregnancy. Each mother's postcode was used and exposure level was determined using three measures:

• Land use regression models, which combine traffic-related air pollutant monitoring data and geographical information around the home address
• Measurements of air pollutants from monitoring stations close to each mother
• Assessing whether each mother in the study lived close to a major road.

The measurements focused mainly on traffic-related pollutants, including black carbon, fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and nitric oxide..."

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