Air Pollution Delivers Smaller Babies
In the article "Air Pollution Delivers Smaller Babies" by Hannah Hoag and Nature Magazine and published by Scientific American on Wednesday, February 6,2013, it informs us that pregnant women that have been exposed to higher levels or air pollution than normal during pregnancy are slightly more likely to give birth to underweight babies. A low birth weight is considered to be a newborn that weighs less than 2.5 kilograms. Low birth weight increases the risk of infant morality and childhood diseases when developing. It also causes health problems such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. An observational study pool was conducted and it focused on two classes of hazardous air pollutions: inhalable particulate matter (PM) with a diameter of less that 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) and of less than 10 micrometers (PM10). They took information on 3 million births at 14 research centers in 9 countries. These centers have higher levels of air pollution and they report low birth weights compared to centers with lower pollution levels. This study of the mothers exposure to air pollution during pregnancy was estimated rather than measured directly because the centers did not provide information on wether the mother smoked durning pregnancy or not. The concern of epidemiologists are that some of the effects of a mothers exposure to air pollution may not be seen until several decades after her children are born.
I have chosen this article because the title caught my eye. I never knew that air pollution can have such a tremendous effect on a child that is only in their mothers womb. It is shocking to here that all the things that we do to cause these high levels of air pollution will and is increasing the risk of development and health problems. In comparison to this article, the article that I summarized in my ScrAPES #2, "California to Unveil New Flammability Standard to Avoid Chemicals in Furniture" informs us that chemicals in furniture that we make cause many health effects towards unborn children. This is a problem we need to solve to keep our future children healthy.
I believe the next step we should take is reducing the amount of air pollution around the world. Anything is worth saving the increase of health risk to an unborn child. An alternative to driving everywhere is to start carpooling, taking the bus or even riding a bike and walking to places near you. We also need to reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned because there are many more things that are being effected by it than this. Doing these few things will reduce the levels of air pollution and keep unborn children along with everyone else form reducing the chances of being 100% healthy.
Permanent Address: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=air-pollution-delivers-smaller-babies
I have chosen this article because the title caught my eye. I never knew that air pollution can have such a tremendous effect on a child that is only in their mothers womb. It is shocking to here that all the things that we do to cause these high levels of air pollution will and is increasing the risk of development and health problems. In comparison to this article, the article that I summarized in my ScrAPES #2, "California to Unveil New Flammability Standard to Avoid Chemicals in Furniture" informs us that chemicals in furniture that we make cause many health effects towards unborn children. This is a problem we need to solve to keep our future children healthy.
I believe the next step we should take is reducing the amount of air pollution around the world. Anything is worth saving the increase of health risk to an unborn child. An alternative to driving everywhere is to start carpooling, taking the bus or even riding a bike and walking to places near you. We also need to reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned because there are many more things that are being effected by it than this. Doing these few things will reduce the levels of air pollution and keep unborn children along with everyone else form reducing the chances of being 100% healthy.
Permanent Address: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=air-pollution-delivers-smaller-babies