Background:In this prospective cohort study of Caucasian mothers and children in Krakow, Poland, we evaluated the role of prenatal exposure to urban air pollutants in the pathogenesis of neurobehavioral disorders. oBjectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between prenatal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure and child intelligence at 5 years of age, controlling for potential confounders suspected to play a role in neurodevelopment. Methods: A cohort of pregnant, healthy, nonsmoking women was enrolled in Krakow, Poland, between 2001 and 2006. During pregnancy, participants were invited to complete a questionnaire and undergo 48-hr personal air monitoring to estimate their babies' exposure, and to provide a blood sample and/or a cord blood sample at the time of delivery. Two hundred fourteen children were followed through 5 years of age, when their nonverbal reasoning ability was assessed using the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM). results: We found that higher (above the median of 17.96 ng/m 3 ) prenatal exposure to airborne PAHs (range, 1.8-272.2 ng/m 3 ) was associated with decreased RCPM scores at 5 years of age, after adjusting for potential confounding variables (n = 214). Further adjusting for maternal intelligence, lead, or dietary PAHs did not alter this association. The reduction in RCPM score associated with high airborne PAH exposure corresponded to an estimated average decrease of 3.8 IQ points. conclusions: These results suggest that prenatal exposure to airborne PAHs adversely affects children's cognitive development by 5 years of age, with potential implications for school performance. They are consistent with a recent finding in a parallel cohort in New York City.

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AbstractThe results of conducted research studies suggest that heredity and early fetal and neonatal development play a causal role in autism. The objective was to determine a relationship between pre-, peri-, and neonatal factors and autism. The relationship between genders and individual risk factors for autism was also examined. A case-control study was conducted among 288 children (96 cases with childhood or atypical autism and 192 controls individually matched to cases by the year of birth, sex, and general practitioners). Data on autism diagnosis and other medical conditions were acquired from physicians. All other information on potential autism risk factors were collected from mothers. Autism risk was significantly higher when mothers were taking medications (OR=2.72, 95%CI: 1.47-5.04) and smoked during pregnancy (OR=3.32, 95%CI: 1.12-9.82). It was also significantly associated with neonatal dyspnea (OR=3.20, 95%CI: 1.29-8.01) and congenital anomalies (OR=7.17, 95%CI: 2.23-23.1). In gender analysis only congenital anomalies were significantly associated with autism for girls but all of mentioned factors stayed independent risk factors for boys.

The study provides evidence against the association of autism with either MMR or a single measles vaccine.

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