Improving air quality in NYC would boost children's future earnings

The same thing should apply to other polluted places.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-05/cums-iaq050614.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 8-May-2014

Contact: Timothy S. Paul
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Improving air quality in NYC would boost children's future earnings

Reducing air pollution in New York City would result in substantial economic gains for children as a result of increasing their IQs. The study is the first to estimate the costs of IQ loss associated with exposure to air pollution, and is based on prior research on prenatal exposure to air pollutants among low-income children by Frederica Perera, PhD, lead author of the current study, and colleagues at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health.

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The researchers say they have likely underestimated the total economic benefit associated with reduction in prenatal PAH exposure because it does not include estimates of economic gains due to broader neurotoxic, respiratory, and carcinogenic effects, all also linked with PAH. While based on children born to mothers on Medicaid in New York City, the authors say, the results likely apply to children more broadly. IQ affects academic performance and earnings.

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