Prenatal Exposure to Air Pollution Associated With Genetic Abnormalities Linked to Cancer, Study Says

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 18 Feb 2005 - 21:00 PST

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Nonsmoking New York City women who are exposed to high levels of air pollution while pregnant are more likely to give birth to infants with genetic abnormalities linked to cancer than nonsmoking women who were exposed to lower levels of air pollution, according to the findings of a study announced on Tuesday and scheduled to be published in the February issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention..., the AP/Long Island Newsday reports. Dr. Frederica Perera, director of the Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and senior author of the study, and colleagues studied 60 pregnant nonsmokers living in the low-income New York City neighborhoods of Harlem, Washington Heights and South Bronx. The women wore air monitors during the third trimester of their pregnancies to measure their exposure to combustion-related pollutants, most of which are caused by vehicles (Matthews, AP/Long Island Newsday, 2/15). When the women's infants were born, researchers analyzed chromosomes collected using their umbilical cord blood and discovered a significant association between the level of prenatal exposure to pollutants and genetic abnormalities, according to Perera (Kranes/Deligiannakis, New York Post, 2/16). Infants born to women with the highest levels of exposure to air pollutants had about 50% more genetic abnormalities than infants born to women with lower levels of exposure to the pollutants, the New York Daily News reports.

Ramifications, Recommendations
Although the study was conducted in only three New York City neighborhoods, Perera said the pollutants studied "are very pervasive in the urban environment, so we have no reason to think the results are not relevant to other populations in urban areas" (Bukowsky/Shin, New York Daily News, 2/16). Perera also said, "Cancer is a disease of accumulated genetic damage, and this new finding shows this process can begin in utero," adding, " Now that we have evidence that the process begins so early ... we can be more aware of the risks" (New York Post, 2/16). Perera said the study does not allow scientists to estimate the "precise increase in cancer risk," but she added that the findings "underscore the need" for local and federal government officials to "take steps to protect children," according to the AP/Newsday (AP/Long Island Newsday, 2/15). The study was funded by NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several private foundations (NIH release, 2/15).

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