Effects of pollutants on human prenatal and postnatal growth: Noise, lead, polychlorobiphenyl compounds, and toxic wastes

Abstract

Industrialization is a major force altering the environment for human habitation. Pollution from industrialization may pose new adaptive challenges for Homo sapiens as well as for other species. The study of human biological adaptation is a traditional area of physical anthropology, but until recently it has not focused on the adaptative challenges of the modern anthropogenic environment. By combining research from anthropology, epidemiology, and public health, it is possible to gauge some of the effects of pollution on human health and adaptation. This review focuses on human growth as a measure of health and a component of human adaptability. Considerable evidence now exists for an adverse impact of lead, noise, and polychlorinated biphenyls on human growth, either prenatal, postnatal, or both. There is substantial replication of results among studies, many of which differ in exposure assessment and classification, sample composition and size, and statistical techniques. Because of this amongstudy variation, specifying the exact amount of growth retardation due to a pollutant is difficult, but the direction and often the magnitude of the effect is similar across studies. There remain numerous barriers to more definitive research on environmental pollutants and health outcomes of importance to biological anthropologists. These are discussed also.Industrial pollution has rapidly and tremendously altered the environment for human habitation. Until industrialization, contaminant levels in the environment and in people were probably quite low. The possible exceptions are few. Lead from poorly fired pottery (Nriagu, 1983) and indoor air pollution from ineffectively drafted hearths (Eisenbud, 1978) may have been the main pollutants a t different times. With the development of craft specialists, occupational exposure began, and from this origin, pollutant levels grew with production. Compared to crafts techniques, industrialization represents a quantum leap in production and in contamination.The environment today contains new materials and old materials at concentrations much higher than people have ever encountered before. Exposure in the home and work place has become routine. A crucial feature of the new exposure pattern is that children are exposed also. The exposure may occur postnatally, or prenatally through passage of contaminants across the placenta. Human physical growth and development is known to be sensitive to a variety of environmental influences. Though early observations on the ecosensitivity of 0 1991 Wiley-Liss, Inc. 158 YEARBOOK OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY[Vol. 34, 1991 growth may have been anecdotal, research over the last century has documented specific environmental features associated with variation in the pattern of human growth (Tanner, 1962;Bogin, 1988). The physical influences of temperature, hypoxia, and season of the year, as well as numerous social arrangements and characteristics, including parents' occupations and incomes, birth order, family size, and urban versus rural resid...

The Environmental, Social, and Health Dimensions of Urban Expansion

“…C. Compounding industrialization, crowding, waste generation, and dense transport systems of the modern city is a peri-urban poverty surrounding many cities in developing countries and the poverty of inner urban areas in parts of the developed world. This complex of factors exacerbates environmental respiratory health hazards such as asthma and increases the frequency of road trauma (McMichael, 2000;Schell, 1991). Few who have visited a megacity in the developing world such as Mexico City are not immediately struck with the severity of the air pollution (diminished, but similar experiences may occur when visiting some U.S. cities as well; see PERN's December 2003 Cyberseminar on Air Pollution and Health.)…”

Noise: A Hazard for the Fetus and Newborn

“…When categorical analysis was used, however, birth weights of female infants in the high noise group (Ͼ99 dBA) were significantly less than those in the combined low and moderate noise exposure group. 35 Increases in the relative rates of newborns with a birth weight of Ͻ3000 g was associated with increasing maternal noise exposure from increases in the number of jets using a nearby airport. 36 In addition, a prospective study of 200 women showed no association of noise Ͼ85 dBALeq24 (personal equivalent 24-hour noise exposure) and decreased birth weight.…”

Effects of Pollution on Human Growth and Development: An Introduction

“…The disease, termed Yusho, was subject to much study and the studies showed that growth was affected to some extent (Aoki, 2001;Kuratsune, 1976;Masuda, 2001;Murai et al, 1987;Yoshimura, 1974). Research on growth of Yusho children and of children born to Yusho mothers has been summarized previously (Schell, 1991(Schell, , 1999Schell and Denham, 2003).…”