14 DAY TRIAL // Data compiled and analyzed by a team of researchers says that early-life exposure to air pollution caused by traffic ups a child's chances of being hyperactive when at the age of 7.
The specialists now saying that there is a link between traffic-related air pollution and higher hyperactivity scores base their claims on information collected while monitoring several kids born in the Cincinnati metropolitan area between 2001 and 2003.
As explained on the official website for the University of Cincinnati, these kids were kept a close eye on since their infancy until their reaching the age of 7.
At that time, the researchers performed tests to see how many of them displayed symptoms associated with an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The symptoms these specialists looked for were attention problems, aggression and atypical behavior, the same source informs us.
Data concerning local traffic-related air pollution was also collected and processed alongside the information concerning the behavioral patterns displayed by these kids.
It was thus discovered that those who had spent significant amounts of time exposed to traffic air pollution during their first year of life were the ones most likely to be hyperactive.
Furthermore, their behavior placed them in the so-called “at risk” category, meaning that they had to be closely monitored in order to spot the development of any clinically relevant symptoms.
“There is increasing concern about the potential effects of traffic-related air pollution on the developing brain,” researcher Nicholas Newman said.
“To our knowledge, this is the largest prospective cohort with the longest follow-up investigating early life exposure to traffic-related air pollution and neurobehavioral outcomes at school age,” he further argued.
This investigation was carried out by a group of University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center specialists.
Its findings were published in detail in today's issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.