By Lisa Marshall

Principal investigator
Tanya Alderete

Funding
Gerber Foundation; Health Effects Institute; National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Collaboration + support
Department of Pediatrics, The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, University of Southern California

Pregnant women exposed to higher levels of air pollution havebabies who grow unusually fast, putting on fat that puts themat risk of weight problems later in life, new Boulderresearch suggests.

Women chronically exposed to pollution are known to deliversmaller babies. But in the first year, evidence suggests, they raceto catch up, with that accelerated weight gain boosting risk ofdiabetes, heart disease and childhood obesity.

The researchers followed 123 Hispanic mother-infant pairs,periodically measuring the babies’ weight, height and fatdistribution. They also tracked mothers’ prenatal exposure to thepollutants PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen dioxide and ozone.

Babies exposed to more air pollution prenatally had greaterchanges in weight and body fatness in the first six months of life.

Researchers believe the pollutants inflame mothers’ organs,influencing fetal development and affecting gene expression.

“Higher rates of obesity among certain groups are not simply abyproduct of personal choices like exercise and calories,” authorTanya Alderete said. “This study suggests it can also relate to howmuch of an environmental burden one carries.”


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