Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure Can Lower Kids’ IQs by 4 Points

Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure Can Lower Kids’ IQs by 4 Points

Lung cancer, heart disease, nausea, headaches, allergic reactions and chronic respiratory disease are just some of the adverse effects of air pollution. Now you can add less intelligent kids to the list. Two separate scientific studies, one conducted in New York City and the other in Poland, found that 5-year-olds exposed to above-average levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the womb score lower on IQ tests. The difference is about the same as the well-documented IQ drop caused by low-level lead exposure.

This is interesting. Ok now whether you view the IQ test as a good measure of intelligence could be an issue here. Personally i think it is flawed in several areas, however it is a good measure of pure logic ability and it seems that this air pollution is doing harm. Could this be another reason to push for electric cars? I know the emissions of electric cars are still high because of the energy that is needed to produce and power them, however that pollution is usually scrubbed from the air by power plants.

Yes, and stay away from the paint chips.

reply to post by ImaginaryReality1984


Yep... and you are right about IQ test.... especially when you take into account cultural factors.

But this does not surprise me... the amount of crap that city dwellers breathe in is horrifying.

I see a documentary once where a surgeon showed the inside of two sets of lungs, both from non smokers. The first was someone who lived in the countryside and the lungs were pink and healthy looking. The second set was from someone who lived in the city and they were grey and kind of shrivelled looking.

He said that the damage done by modern pollutants was very scary and that if most people could see the damage being done there would be a mass exodus from the cities.

Regardless of if people believe in manmade climate change or not... we need to sort out this mess!

Peace