Specialties
Early childhood health effects of air pollution
Hertz-Picciotto, Irva — Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
General summary
The "Early Childhood Health Effects of Air Pollution" study, funded by the Health Effects Institute, is concerned with the how air pollution may affect the incidence of respiratory infections and ear infections in early childhood. The study is directed by Irva Hertz-Picciotto in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine, in collaboration with the Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic. It involves children born in two regions of Bohemia, the western part of the Czech Republic: one with high measured concentrations of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and other pollutants, the other with much lower concentrations. Pediatrician diagnoses between birth and four and a half years are being obtained, as well as information on the child’s growth. Although the health effects of air pollution have been well-studied in adults, very little research has addressed how pollutants in air might affect susceptibility to infections in children.