Published online July 20, 2009
PEDIATRICS Vol. 124 No. 2 August 2009, pp. e195-e202 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-3506)
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ARTICLE

Prenatal Airborne Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure and Child IQ at Age 5 Years

Frederica P. Perera, DrPHa,b, Zhigang Li, MPSa,b,c, Robin Whyatt, DrPHa,b, Lori Hoepner, MPHa,b, Shuang Wang, PhDa,b,c, David Camann, MSd and Virginia Rauh, ScDa,b

a Department of Environmental Health Sciences
b Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health
c Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York
d Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the relationship between prenatal exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and child intelligence.

METHODS: Children of nonsmoking black or Dominican-American women residing in New York City were monitored from in utero to 5 years of age, with determination of prenatal PAH exposure through personal air monitoring for the mothers during pregnancy. At 5 years of age, intelligence was assessed for 249 children by using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised. Multivariate linear regression models were used to estimate and to test the associations between prenatal PAH exposure and IQ.

RESULTS: After adjustment for maternal intelligence, quality of the home caretaking environment, environmental tobacco smoke exposure, and other potentially confounding factors, high PAH levels (above the median of 2.26 ng/m3) were inversely associated with full-scale IQ (P = .007) and verbal IQ (P = .003) scores. Children in the high-exposure group had full-scale and verbal IQ scores that were 4.31 and 4.67 points lower, respectively, than those of less-exposed children (≤2.26 ng/m3). The associations between logarithmically transformed, continuous, PAH levels and these IQ measures also were significant (full-scale IQ: β = –3.00; P = .009; verbal IQ: β = –3.53; P = .002).

CONCLUSION: These results provide evidence that environmental PAHs at levels encountered in New York City air can affect children's IQ adversely.

Key Words: prenatal • fetal • polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons • air pollution • IQ

Abbreviations: CI—confidence interval • CCCEH—Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health • HOME—Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment • PAH—polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon • WPPSI-R—Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised • TONI-3—Test of Maternal Nonverbal Intelligence, Third Edition • ETS—environmental tobacco smoke

Accepted Mar 25, 2009.


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eLetters:

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Study Leaves a Number of Questions
Lou Sandler, PhD
Pediatrics Online, 29 Jul 2009 [Full text]
Finishing the analysis
Anne T Berg, Ph.D.
Pediatrics Online, 11 Aug 2009 [Full text]