55
Babies exposed to air pollution during pregnancy take longer to learn to speak, research finds
(www.theguardian.com)
Researchers from King’s College London studied 498 infants born in St Thomas’ Hospital, central London, between 2015 and 2020. Of those, 125 were born prematurely, 54 at less than 32 weeks – classifying them as “very and extremely preterm”.
Using their mothers’ home postcodes, the researchers estimated the amount of pollution – including nitrogen dioxide and PM10 and PM2.5 particulate matter – they were exposed to during each trimester of pregnancy. Then, once the infants reached 18 months old, the researchers gave them a standard clinical test to measure cognitive, language and motor skills.
Those infants exposed to high pollution in the first trimester scored on average five to seven points lower on language tests, compared with babies exposed to low pollution. Premature babies exposed to the highest pollution levels in the womb across all of pregnancy scored on average 11 points less for motor skills than those exposed to low levels.
There's absolutely nothing scientific about that at all.