Children exposed to air pollution for as little as one day are more at risk of developing heart disease and other ailments in adulthood, according to a new study led by Standford University.
The analysis published in Nature Scientific Reports is the first to investigate the effect of air pollution at a single cell level while simultaneously focussing on cardiovascular and immune effects in children.
A group of predominantly Hispanic children aged between 6 to 8 in California, where air pollution from wildfires and industrial pollution is rife.
Using continuous daily pollutant concentrations, meteorological and geophysical data, researchers estimated average air pollution exposures over a single day, a week, and one, three, six and twelve months prior to every participant’s visit.
Researchers used mass spectrometry to discover that exposure to particulate matter, carbon monoxide and ozone is linked to increased monocytes, white blood cells that play a vital role in the build-up of plaque in arteries. Therefore, children exposed to pollutants could be predisposed to heart disease later in adulthood.
The research further concluded that Hispanic children are disproportionately exposed to higher road traffic pollution than other children with a different ethnicity.
Previous research found toxic air can alter gene regulation to the extent long-term health may be affected, encouraging clinical interventions for people chronically exposed to higher levels of air pollution.
‘This is compelling enough for a paediatrician to say that we have evidence air pollution causes changes in the immune and cardiovascular system associated not only with asthma and respiratory diseases, as has been shown before,’ commented study lead author Mary Prunicki, Director of Air Pollution and Health Research at Stanford University.
‘It looks look like even brief air pollution exposure can actually change the regulation and expression of children’s genes and perhaps alter blood pressure, potentially laying the foundation for increased risk of disease later in life.’
Respiratory disease is a significant killer, and ranks as the second most common cause of deaths globally.
