William Atkins
Monday, 10 November 2008 19:24
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 2
A U.S.-Mexico study on air pollution in Mexico City shows that healthy children (dogs, too) got brain inflammation and lesions, which caused them (only the kids) to do worse in school when compared to children in a low air-pollution city, all because of the dirty air.
The article “
Air pollution, cognitive deficits and brain abnormalities: A pilot study with children and dogs” in the journal
Brain and Cognition summarizes the results of the study.
Its authors, from Mexico and the United States, are led by experimental pathologist Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas, of the Instituto Nacional de Pediatría, Mexico City, Mexico; and the Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Montana, Missoula, U.S.A.
They state in the abstract to their paper,
“Exposure to air pollution is associated with neuroinflammation in healthy children and dogs in Mexico City."
They studied 55 healthy children (between the ages of seven and 18 years) and seven young (one to two year old) dogs who were regularly exposed to the high air pollution in Mexico City, Mexico.
They also examined 18 healthy children and young dogs in the low air pollution city of Polotitlán, Mexico.
The researchers gave all of the children psychometric tests, along with brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.
The results of the study are discussed on page two.
