We all know that air pollution is a major issue in the world today, for the ones breathing in the air of course, but what about the unborn children in the womb? Recent studies show that even the air Mom breathes in can cause damage to the lungs of the unborn child. The air pollutants may inhibit lung growth before your baby even has a chance to breathe his or her first breath of air.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), something needs to be done now to protect the developing lungs of our unborn children in the future. Though several things are known to jeopardize the growth of a fetus, this is the first thing to confirm lung damage.
The WHO says that more than cleaner engines need to be done, because even with cleaner engines, as traffic increases the pollution levels will stay the same, and while this is better than an increase in air pollutants, it is still not the reduction we need.
The most dangerous pollutant is known as PM10. It has particles that are less than 10 microns in size, meaning they cannot be filtered out through the nose, but they can penetrate deeply into the lungs. While there is not enough evidence to link air pollutants to childhood cancer, the report shows that there is enough evidence to link the air pollution to respiratory difficulty and related deaths in infancy.
A study of Swiss infants shows that the more harmful pollution that a mother to be breathes in, the harder the baby will have to work in order to be able to breathe. Those who were exposed to more pollution inhaled 48 times a minute, where as babies who were exposed to less pollution inhaled 42 times a minute, and this is a clear indication of inflammation and damage in the lungs.
All this evidence serves as further proof that we need to take care of our enviroment and make sure to clean it up for the children now, so as to make the future even brighter for them.