Pollution harms foetuses: study

FOETUSES exposed to high levels of air pollution, such as traffic fumes, are significantly smaller and can have lower intelligence and more cardiovascular problems than babies in country areas, a world-first study has found. Researchers in Brisbane studied ultrasound scans from more than 15,000 foetuses during a 10-year period and found that women living in postcodes with high levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in the air had babies with shorter femur bones and smaller head and abdominal circumferences.

SMH 8 Jan 2008