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Results Autism Spectrum Disorder in Association with Air Pollution Since Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a diagnosis that is difficult to explain the reason for, a group of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health wanted to find out if air pollution is a potential cause of this diagnosis.

Namely, if you can link higher exposure to air pollution of the mother during pregnancy, the higher the probability is that the baby will suffer from ASD.

The study covered a total of 1,767 children, 245 with ASD and 1,522 without.

The researchers collected information on various parameters of the children from pediatric nurses.

Based on the child's birthday, the researchers investigated the mother's residence address during her pregnancy.

This time- and positioning data was compared to historically measured values of PM2.5 near residence address.

Finally, they also analyzed whether the child had been diagnosed with ASD or not.

The researchers were able to confirm their hypothesis, because it turned out to be true – higher exposure to PM2.5-particles collaborates with higher probability of suffering from ASD.

They also found out that there was an extra high likelihood to be diagnosed if the mother had been exposed to air particles during the last third of her pregnancy.

The report shows that it is not possible to draw tangible conclusions, as autism could also be caused by other factors.

(Raz, et al., 2015).

When Professor Frank Kelly, Director of the Environmental Research Group at King’s College London, commented the report he said: “I think if it was this study by itself I wouldn’t take much notice, but it’s now the fifth that has come to the same conclusion.” (Gallagher, 2014) Neural Tube Defects in Association with Air Pollution A ten year investigation from a group of scientists have been published, looking at birth defects in Shanxi, a province in central-eastern China.

This region is classed as one of the most air polluted regions in China.

The study was done since the numbers of children born with neural tube defects (NTDs) had risen in the region where 140 of 10,000 newborns suffered from this disease, compared to 7.5 of 10,000 in the United States.

When the researchers analyzed eighty placentas from children, both newborn and stillborn, with this condition, they discovered that “those infants had been exposed in utero to significant levels of pesticides, industrial solvent, and especially polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)”.

There is a relationship between higher exposure of these chemicals and higher risk of developing NTDs.

(Larson, 2013) NTDs do most often affects fetus during first month of pregnancy.

This period is very critical in the prenatal development, since the mother in many cases does not know whether she is pregnant or not.

Overweight, untreated diabetes and medical treatment of epilepsy are general risk factors for neural tube defects.

Spina bifida and anencephaly are the most common NTDs.

It is fundamentally when an opening in the brain or spinal cord remains from an early stage of development.

There has been progress in the field and with the help of surgery, mortality rates have declined.

The less brain tissue consists of opening, the more likely it is to live a normal life.

However, most babies die after a few hours, if they have been born with anencephaly, because there is no effective treatment.

(National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2016) Birth Weight in Association with Air Pollution There has been a study of pregnant women, living in four urban areas of Beijing, being pregnant before, during and after the Olympics in the city in 2008.

Because of the high air pollution in the city, several efforts were carried out to clean the air for the games.

Among other things, some production factories were shut down, traffic was restricted and construction works were postponed during the event.

Because to these efforts, smog reduced by half.

Now it was possible to investigate how the fetus is affected by air pollution, as scientists were now able to compare pregnant women living in the same city, but with different conditions.

The study refers to earlier research in the area, stating that reduced birth weight of babies is related to higher concentrations of pollutants in the air during pregnancy.

What scientists did not know before, but in this study wanted to find out, was when this relationship applies during pregnancy.

“We estimated the difference in birth weight associated with having individual months of pregnancy during the 2008 Olympics (8 August¬–24 September 2008) compared with the same dates in 2007 and 2009”.

Meanwhile, the research team estimated birth weight in relation to the pregnant woman's exposure of, divided by months of pregnancy, air pollutant such as PM2.5-particles, sulfur dioxide (SO2) carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).