New research from the University of Utah shows exposure to ozone pollution during pregnancy could be linked to unborn children developing an intellectual disability.
The research used the Utah Population Database, a significant resource of in-depth information on Utah family histories, in which family members are linked to demographic and medical information.
One of only a handful of such databases in the world, it supports research on genetics, epidemiology, demography, and public health.
Using the database, alongside ozone data from the U.S. EPA, researchers examined exposure data linked to children with intellectual disabilities born between 2003 and 2014, as well as their siblings and a control population.
The researchers were able to calculate ozone exposure of each child, based on when they were born, length of gestation, and where the mother lived at the time of birth.
Co-author Amanda Bakian, a research associate professor of psychiatry with the University’s Huntsman Mental Health Institute said: ‘The study is unique in its use of both population controls and the sibling design, which is a really nice complimentary design to use. Because this is an epidemiological study, it uses observational data, secondary data.
‘Sibling designs allow us to control for some of these population factors that just would be really challenging to do. It just gives another layer of robustness of rigor to this study, and that would have very challenging on a population level to do without the Utah Population Database and their access to genealogical data.’
Ground-level ozone in Utah frequently exceeds the federal health standard for ambient ozone concentrations (70 ppb), particularly in the summer months. A warming climate will see such exceedances occur more regularly in the future.
The team found that the second trimester of pregnancy to be the most significant period for ozone exposure, with a 10-ppb increase in average ozone levels associated with a 55.3% higher likelihood of intellectual disability compared to siblings, and a 22.8% increase compared to population controls.
However, exposure throughout all stages of pregnancy stages was associated with in increased risk of intellectual disabilities.
Research leader Sara Grineski, a professor of sociology said: ‘The body of evidence suggests that it is important that we never take our foot off the gas in terms of working to reduce the levels of air pollution that Utahns are breathing. We don’t want to neglect these issues related to ozone and cognitive health moving forward. Our findings here for Utah suggest a troubling association. This is just one study in a sea of papers documenting the harmful effects of air pollution on health.
‘Salt Lake City ranks 10th for the most polluted cities in the U.S. in terms of ozone, and 2023 ozone levels were higher than 2022 levels.’
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