Research links tobacco smoke and roadway air pollution with childhood obesity

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-11/uosc-rlt111114.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 12-Nov-2014

Contact: Leslie Ridgeway
University of Southern California - Health Sciences

Research links tobacco smoke and roadway air pollution with childhood obesity
Keck Medicine of USC scientists are among the first to study combined effects of tobacco smoke, air pollution on body mass index

LOS ANGELES -- New research from Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) bolsters evidence that exposure to tobacco smoke and near-roadway air pollution contribute to the development of obesity.

The study, to be posted online Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014 in Environmental Health Perspectives, shows increased weight gain during adolescence in children exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke or near-roadway air pollution, compared to children with no exposure to either of these air pollutants. The study is one of the first to look at the combined effects on body mass index of exposure to both near-roadway air pollution and tobacco smoke. The effects were substantially greater in children exposed to both air pollutant mixtures than to either alone.

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