Breathing more air pollution during pregnancy, infancy and early childhood can slow lung development, say researchers
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Air pollution is slowing the lung growth of children in the UK, a new study has revealed.
Scientists have found that breathing more air pollution during pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood can slow lung development into early adulthood. In particular, researchers discovered that the most impact occurred during adolescence, the time when lung growth accelerates.
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To reach their conclusions, scientists tracked lung function in more than 5,000 people born in and around Bristol in the 1990s, with their health assessed from birth onwards.
The capabilities of their lungs were measured using spirometry, a process where individuals are asked to breathe as hard and as fast as possible into a mouthpiece. A machine then measures the amount of air participants can exhale and the speed of their breathing, allowing researchers to assess how well each individual’s lungs are working.
The individuals’ lungs were tested as they grew up, at eight and 15 years old and then as adults, aged 24, when lung function is expected to reach its maximum.
Researchers calculated the air pollution exposure in each trimester of pregnancy, and then for each year of early childhood. This air pollution exposure figure included particle pollution and nitrogen dioxide – a gas emitted by many diesel cars and gas boilers.
Previous studies have shown how detrimental air pollution can be to lung growth. One study found that air pollution was reducing the growth of children’s lungs in East London by approximately the volume of two hen’s eggs. And in Sweden, studies on children have shown that lung growth increases when air quality improves.
‘While the effects in individual children are small and unlikely to have immediate clinical consequences, they shouldn’t be dismissed,’ said first author of the study, Dr Katie Eminson.
‘Because lung function tends to track from childhood into adulthood, small differences early in life may have implications for long-term health. This reinforces the importance of reducing exposures and protecting children’s environments.’
The dangers of air pollution
It isn’t just children who are affected by air pollution. In fact, research conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) found that in the UK, more than 1,100 people per year are diagnosed with the most dominant type of lung cancer due to air pollution.
Cases of adenocarcinoma – now the most common type of lung cancer worldwide – have been rising steadily in the last few years. Back in 2020, the cancer accounted for 39 per cent of global lung cancer cases in men, and 57.1 per cent of cases in women. By 2022, these figures had risen: 45.6 per cent for men, and 57.1 per cent for women.
Air pollution is also linked to lower quality brain health, according to a study involving 7,000 Canadians. Importantly, these changes in brain health are not so severe that people will notice, but scientists say tracking such differences will help to mitigate them before they get worse.
