Picture: This image is of New York City and some of it's factories, as you can see they are creating alot of air pollution
Summary:
According to a study conducted by researchers from the Mailman School of Public Health in New York, babies in the womb whose mothers are exposed to air pollution have a lower IQ. In this over 5 year experiment, the pregnant (non-smoking) women got a personal air monitors during their pregnancy. This monitored the quality of air they were exposed to. The results showed that the women, who lived in New York City neighborhoods of Harlem, South Bronx or Washington Heights, were exposed to air pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The children were tested when they were five years old and their test scores were below the ones of the mothers who were not exposed to the air pollutants. A major source of the PAHs is the burning of fossil fuels and other organic materials, like tobacco.
According to a study conducted by researchers from the Mailman School of Public Health in New York, babies in the womb whose mothers are exposed to air pollution have a lower IQ. In this over 5 year experiment, the pregnant (non-smoking) women got a personal air monitors during their pregnancy. This monitored the quality of air they were exposed to. The results showed that the women, who lived in New York City neighborhoods of Harlem, South Bronx or Washington Heights, were exposed to air pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The children were tested when they were five years old and their test scores were below the ones of the mothers who were not exposed to the air pollutants. A major source of the PAHs is the burning of fossil fuels and other organic materials, like tobacco.
Reaction:
We need to act quickly! These are the future leaders of America; we promote the smartest people possible and the air is now a boundary! You cannot blame the children or the parents. We need to help them though, because the air is a very important part of our lives and we need to regulate the amount of pollutants that people are exposed to. The air quality is only going to get worse and then it will be harder to fix. If we start now it will not be as much that we need to fix and we can even prevent air pollution!
We need to act quickly! These are the future leaders of America; we promote the smartest people possible and the air is now a boundary! You cannot blame the children or the parents. We need to help them though, because the air is a very important part of our lives and we need to regulate the amount of pollutants that people are exposed to. The air quality is only going to get worse and then it will be harder to fix. If we start now it will not be as much that we need to fix and we can even prevent air pollution!
Questions:
1.)
What other threats does the air pollutions
quality pose?
2.)
Is it the parents fault for exposing themselves to
this air pollution? Why or why not?
3.)
Is it the governments fault for not looking into
the air quality of New York City?
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should do something about it but what exactly could we do? I wonder how exactly the exposure to air pollution affects the child’s IQ. I am pretty surprised that the amount of air pollution is that bad to where the kids whose mothers smoked had a higher IQ than children whose mother were exposed to air pollution. It is sad that the amount of pollution has gotten to that point and I really hope that we can do something about it and soon.
Answering Nasrine’s question 1:
The air pollution could cause a variety of different problems, but I think the main problem it would cause, among children anyway, would be respiratory issues. A lot of people can develop things such as asthma but I think if they are exposed to higher amounts of air pollution, then the amount of people that do develop it could be significantly higher.
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nasrine that the air pollution should be reduced so that people could live a much more healthier life and not to mention the future generation that are greatly affected by it. I am glad that we are all currently living in a suburban afea that has much less pollution compared to all those big cities. I remember reading an article about how pollution in those cities result shorter life span for city dwellers compared to any other areas. I think this pollution may have something to do with it. I think this research urgently shows why we must really focus in developing a sufficient replacement for all the fossil fuels as soon as we can. Though we are not exactly close to achieving it, I think filters could at least help from excess smoke from the factories to make it less harmless than it already is.
Answer to question 2:
I think it is not the parent's fault for their kids to the toxic air as the city is a place where many jobs are available and parents also need to make money in order for them to raise children as well. It would, instead, be the fault of the factory owners for spewing out poison that are threats to the new generation and the others living there as well.