It appears that certain chemicals polluting the air that pregnant mothers breathe could be the cause of their babies developing a tendency to put on weight all along their lives. A study undertaken in the city of New York demonstrates that exposure of pregnant women to diesel exhaust can predispose the children to obesity.
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| Diesel Smoke:Threat for Man and his Environment |
This human study in New York, focusing on prenatal exposure to diesel exhaust, demonstrates that that a pregnant women exposed to concentrations such as those found in major cities has twice as many chances of seeing her child and up overweight or obese. Robin Whyatt, deputy director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental health says: "Not only was their body mass higher, but it was higher due to body fat rather than bone or lean muscle mass".
The chemicals responsible for such actions have been identified. What can affect the future weight of your children are the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mostly called the PAHs? These complex and almost unbreakable chemicals are a petrol derivatives molecules. Whyatts’s and colleague Rundle’s works tend to show that PAHs might affect the functioning of fat cells.
Rundle explains: “Fat cells are like a storage container for lipids. As they swell, they get heavier because more is being stored. When you start to exercise or diet, the fat cells are supposed to release lipids; that’s how you lose weight. There’s some data showing PAHs interfere with that process”. Scientists believe that PAHs count among the chemicals that can act like estrogen and disrupt your body’s hormonal pathways are concentrations. “Estrogen is … extremely important during fetal development and the reproductive system” Whaytt says.
The study by Rundle and Whyatt was published in April 2013 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. It states evidence related to what the scientific world was already suspecting after similar researches have been going on and testing the actions of such molecules on animal cells. Rundle and Whyatt have exposed pregnant mice to PAHs, and the results clearly demonstrate that the progeny of the group of mice exposed ended up significantly fatter than mice treated normally.
PAHs are a group of over 100 different chemicals with various sources. The most common sources of PAHs are burning coal, oil, gas, tobacco and general and industrial waste. The amount of sources and the concentration in the air are becoming seriously worrying in some places, like big busy urban areas. PAHs can even be found in the air as a result of burning candles or incense sticks. You can even inhale some when you are barbecuing or grilling some food! Of course, the largest part that is reject into our environment is the result of our use of refined petrol, especially diesel products it seems. PAHs just seem to be everywhere!
Along with PAHs, the air we breathe, the water we drink and bathe in, and the earth we use to grow and produce our food are all getting seriously infected with byproducts of Man’s activity; and a lot of them are harmful not only for the environment, but for our bodies too. And gaining weight abnormally certainly isn’t the worst thing pollution can do to you…
