Spending one’s childhood in a community with polluted air stalls lung development roughly as much as does having a mother who smokes, according to a study of children growing up in southern California.
That finding lengthens the list of negative effects on health that stem from bad air (SN: 8/2/03, p. 72: Air Sickness), but it also suggests that antipollution measures could prevent deficits in pulmonary development.
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