Childhood Obesity Linked To Air Pollution From Vehicles (theguardian.com)

Early exposure to air pollution from vehicles increases the risk of children becoming obese, new research has found. From a report: High levels of nitrogen dioxide, which is emitted by diesel engines, in the first year of life led to significantly faster weight gain later, the scientists found. Other pollutants produced by road traffic have also been linked to obesity in children by recent studies. Nitrogen dioxide pollution is at illegal levels in most urban areas in the UK and the government has lost three times in the high court over the inadequacy of its plans. The pollutant also plagues many cities in Europe and around the world. "We would urge parents to be mindful where their young children spend their time, especially considering if those areas are near major roads," said Jeniffer Kim, at the University of Southern California, who led the new research. "The first year of life is a period of rapid development of various systems in the body [and] may prime the body's future development." The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed last Monday that 90% of the world's children are breathing unsafe air, a situation described as "inexcusable" by the WHO's head. Concern over the impact of toxic air on children's health is rising as research reveals serious long-term damage to both their physical and mental health.

Comments

This makes no sense.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pollution standards are far stricter than they used to be, so we should be seeing a decrease in obesity if this is such a major factor.

These are just environmental activists who are trying to exploit "intersectionality" with the well-publicised obesity epidemic, so as to promote their war on mankind's industrialisation.

You'll never convince mankind to tear down its hard-won development. Make better machines, or STFU.

Re:This makes no sense.

[ShanghaiBill]

Depends on whether our pollution standards happen to target the chemicals

They do. Catalytic converters specifically target nitrogen oxides, and NO2 levels have fallen dramatically over the last 20 years.

Has there been a corresponding decrease in childhood obesity? No.

To be fair, older cars produce much more NO2 than newer models, so kids in low income neighborhoods are more likely to have higher NO2 exposure, and are more likely to be obese. But even in low income areas, NO2 levels have fallen, with no corresponding decrease in childhood obesity.

Re:and ... and ...

[geekmux]

and eating too much. probably more the fault.

How dare you accuse those who should be! You must be some kind of racist.

Personal accountability was deemed unethical and immoral. Seems it doesn't help move #PerpetualVictims forward towards their special flavor of "progress".

Makes sense

[rsilvergun]

when you can't get as much oxygen into your system you can't exercise as much. Cyclists (of which I am one) have known this for a long time.

I wish we could get the environmentalist crowd to stop banging on about shaving whales and talk more about stuff like this.

Re:Makes sense

[alvinrod]

So we just need to give the kids some EPO then? Seems to work for the cyclists.

Really though, you don't need extensive exercise to lose weight, just better eating habits. I dropped 30 lbs. a few years back just by cutting out unnecessary snack foods and other crap without doing additional high-intensity exercise. It's much easier not to put an additional 600 calories into your body than it is to burn that 600 calories (on top of what you already do) off later.

Re:Makes sense

[ShanghaiBill]

Why would you want to shave whales? Do they even have any hair?

Yes. Whales have hair.

Young whales of many species are born with some hair, and lose it before adulthood. Others keep a bit of hair into adulthood.

Shaving them is difficult, because you have to train them to keep their head above water so the shaving cream doesn't wash off.

Sunspots

[goombah99]

sunspots have risen too.

Re:There'a a very simple reason for the trend...

[religionofpeas]

The subjects are ingesting more calories than their bodies need. That's why they become obese. It's that simple.

Yes, everybody knows that. The question is what are all the things that lead people to ingest more calories than they need, and if certain kinds of pollution may play a part in that.

Re:Another random correlation

[ShanghaiBill]

I wondered if there was something like kids in rural areas are more likely to play outside than those in urban environments.

Obesity is higher in rural areas.

Perhaps rural kids are LESS likely to play outside, since an urban park full of other kids is a nicer place to play than a rural cornfield.

Re: Said it before

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a projection created in May 2016, when the Democrats were in control, everyone assumed that Hillary would win, and expected the continued destruction of American exceptionalism to continue.

Right

[argStyopa]

....because Nairobi street kids are famously obese?

"...The scientists took a series of other factors into account, including gender, ethnicity and parental education, and think it is unlikely that variations in diet could explain the strong link found...."

I'd suspect confounding factors like poverty, urbanization, and THOSE impacts on peoples' diets in the early years of life (or the diets of their nursing mothers) before I'd point a finger at the trucks driving by.

Don't get me wrong, I think early childhood development is probably stunted by particulates, NOx, etc *particularly* from diesel vehicles, but I think this study is merely finding correlation.

What a joke!

[nanospook]

People and kids are obese because our food supply has become contaminated with huge amounts of sugar and carbs. A huge number of American's are now diabetic as a result. The drug, foods, and medical corporations are all in cahoots on this. That there is no outcry from the government is in my opinion, because the corps are running the show.. https://www.cdc.gov/media/rele...