Pollution affects developing fetus

Soot and other types of air pollution may not only affect animals and people, but developing foetuses too. Recent research has found that genetic mutations caused by some pollutants can be passed through sperm to fetal mice. Presumably, the same thing could happen to human beings. Mice that breathed polluted air from a steel mill were much more likely to father offspring with clear genetic mutations than mice that breathed filtered air, according to researchers form the McMaster University in Toronto. The study identifies airborne particulate matter as a contributor to heritable mutation induction in mice; however, a direct link between mutations and health effects has not yet been established. Nonetheless, structural changes in DNA have been detected in human sperm after air pollution exposure. Air pollution has also been linked to heart disease, lung cancer and birth defects, they noted, citing many studies. The researchers put caged mice downwind of steel mills and some got filtered air and some got what the wind brought. It was found that mice exposed to HEPA-filtered air at the urban-industrial site had paternal mutation rates that were 52 percent lower. How the inhaled pollutants cause mutations is not yet clear.

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