Los Angeles – Children living near busy highways have significant impairments in the development of their lungs that can lead to respiratory problems for the rest of their lives, University of Southern California researchers have found in the largest and longest study of its kind.
The 13-year study of more than 3,600 children in 12 Southern California communities found that the damage from living near a freeway is about the same as that from living in communities with the highest pollution levels, the team reported Thursday in the online version of the medical journal Lancet.
“If you live in a high-pollution area and live near a busy road, you get a doubling” of the damage, said lead author W. James Gauderman, an epidemiologist at USC’s Keck School of Medicine. “Someone suffering a pollution-related deficit in lung function as a child will probably have less than healthy lungs all of his or her life.”
The greatest damage appears to be in the small airways of the lung, damage normally associated with vehicle emissions.
The study was funded by the California Air Resources Board, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Hastings Foundation.
There has been a growing body of research about the effects of air pollution on the lungs and cardiovascular system, but most have focused on short-term effects, linking pollution episodes to heart attacks, asthma attacks, and hospitalization.
What is unique about this study is the large number of children involved and the length of the study. Gauderman and his colleagues recruited groups of fourth-grade students, average age 10, in 1993 and 1996, scattered from San Luis Obispo to San Diego counties.
