Friday, July 31, 2009
Lower IQs in kids
Research have suggested that polluted air can cause a 5 point drop in a young child's IQ.
It all starts as early as in the mother's womb. Children heavily exposed to combustion pollutants in the womb have an IQ of 4.5 points lower than average children by kindergarten age.
A study was conducted. 400 soon-to-be moms were recruited from the cities of New York. They were then given a backpack with a PAH (Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) sampler to wear for 2 days during the last trimester of pregnancy.
The children that were born after that showed a PAH-linked decline in mental development by the age of 3.
At age 5, only those who primarily spoke English were shortlisted for IQ tests. The effect of PAHs on IQ was very significant even after accounting for other factors which may affect IQ.
The moms range of exposure to PAH varied from 0.5 to 34.5 ng/m3. Anything above the mean value of 2.26ng/m3 was considered high. Kids whose moms were in this group were compared with kids in the less exposed group.
It was discovered that kids in the more exposed group had IQs of 4.3 points lower than the other group. Also, most of the kids' mean verbal IQ was 4.67 points lower. When the kids were all compared individually, there was no evidence that PAH had no effect on IQ.
Bruce Lanphear, a pediatric epidemiologist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada states, "For any individual child, unless it’s your own, you might consider a 5-point drop in IQ as no big deal. But extrapolate that across a population the size of the United States, and a downward shift in IQ by 5 points will increase by 3.5 million the number of children who meet the criteria for mental retardation. It also increases the number of children needing more, costlier help in school."
After reading this article, I feel that we should all the more stop polluting the Earth. Pollution not only dirties the environment. In this case, it even causes lower IQ in kids. We should learn to protect the Earth more. It is afterall our home.
Crystal Boey (4)
3 Unity
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/45849/title/Traffic_hydrocarbons_linked_to_lower_IQs_in_kids ¶ 9:52 PM
It all starts as early as in the mother's womb. Children heavily exposed to combustion pollutants in the womb have an IQ of 4.5 points lower than average children by kindergarten age.
A study was conducted. 400 soon-to-be moms were recruited from the cities of New York. They were then given a backpack with a PAH (Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) sampler to wear for 2 days during the last trimester of pregnancy.
The children that were born after that showed a PAH-linked decline in mental development by the age of 3.
At age 5, only those who primarily spoke English were shortlisted for IQ tests. The effect of PAHs on IQ was very significant even after accounting for other factors which may affect IQ.
The moms range of exposure to PAH varied from 0.5 to 34.5 ng/m3. Anything above the mean value of 2.26ng/m3 was considered high. Kids whose moms were in this group were compared with kids in the less exposed group.
It was discovered that kids in the more exposed group had IQs of 4.3 points lower than the other group. Also, most of the kids' mean verbal IQ was 4.67 points lower. When the kids were all compared individually, there was no evidence that PAH had no effect on IQ.
Bruce Lanphear, a pediatric epidemiologist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada states, "For any individual child, unless it’s your own, you might consider a 5-point drop in IQ as no big deal. But extrapolate that across a population the size of the United States, and a downward shift in IQ by 5 points will increase by 3.5 million the number of children who meet the criteria for mental retardation. It also increases the number of children needing more, costlier help in school."
After reading this article, I feel that we should all the more stop polluting the Earth. Pollution not only dirties the environment. In this case, it even causes lower IQ in kids. We should learn to protect the Earth more. It is afterall our home.
Crystal Boey (4)
3 Unity
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/45849/title/Traffic_hydrocarbons_linked_to_lower_IQs_in_kids ¶ 9:52 PM
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