Study Draws Link Between Autism, Air Pollution

Preliminary results in a study produced by the University of Pittsburgh suggests air pollution may have adverse effects on children’s health, that could lead to autism spectrum disorders.

The Pitt Graduate School of Public Health team interviewed 217 families of children with ASD and compared the findings with information from two separate sets of comparison families of children without ASD born during the same time period in the six-county area.

They found that children with autism spectrum disorders were more likely to have been exposed to higher levels of certain air toxics during their mothers’ pregnancies and their first two years of life compared with children without the condition.

“There were three small studies that came out since 2006 linking ASD, autism spectrum disorders, with air pollution,” said Evelyn Talbott, a Pitt Graduate School of Public Health professor of epidemiology who led the study. “I scratched my head and said, ‘Nobody’s ever looked at this, and when you don’t look at it, you don’t find anything.’ It is worth looking at it because we know so very little about what causes autism spectrum disorders.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has long warned that air toxics are known or suspected to cause serious health issues including reproductive or birth defects.

Traffic Pollution Linked to Lung Damage in Unborn Children

A recent study revealed that pregnant women who are exposed to traffic pollution are increasing the chances of damaging the lungs of their unborn children.

Thorax, one of the world’s leading respiratory medicine journals, published a study that concluded exposure to pollution during the second trimester of pregnancy raises the risk of harm to a child’s lungs.

While existing research by-and-large highlights the adverse effects of air pollutants on lung function in school-aged children and adolescents, this study draws attention to the less well-known effects on the unborn child.

Of the 1,295 women enrolled in the study at the beginning of pregnancy, the researchers obtained data on exposure to both air pollution and lung function assessment at 4.5 years old for 620 of their children. Nitrogen dioxide and benzene levels, widely used markers of traffic-related air pollution, were used as indicators of pollution I the areas in which the women lived.

Analysis of the results showed that exposure to higher levels of nitrogen dioxide and benzene in pregnancy was associated with reduced lung function parameters in breathing tests.

Children whose mothers lived in a high traffic air pollution area during the second trimester of pregnancy had a 22% higher risk of impaired lung function that those living in less populated areas.

Dr. Eva Morales of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Barcelona led the study.

South Bend Airport to receive $6 million for geothermal system

South Bend International Airport will receive more than $6.1 million in grant funding by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under monies provided by the federal agency’s Voluntary Airport Low Emission (VALE) and Airport Improvement Program (AIP).

The funds will be used to install a geothermal heating and cooling system at the airport to reduce emissions and improve air quality. The new system replaces an aging heat pump system that has served the airport’s main terminal building for nearly 20 years. This updated geothermal heating and cooling system will harness relatively constant temperature below the earth’s surface to produce heat. 

            South Bend International Airport's new concourse was built with a geothermal system.           

            The geothermal project is slated to begin in late October. Construction hinges upon final approval by US Customs and Border Protection on the design of the Federal Inspection Station and General Aviation Facility. If the project is given approval, construction is expected to being in early 2015.

Supreme Court rules Ethanol Plants Free from Stricter Controls

The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that plants producing fuel-grade ethanol are not subject to stricter controls under the Clean Air Act. The Court found that it is reasonable for environmental regulators to exclude them from regulations governing chemical processing plants.

The Clean Air Act is federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources. The law authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards to protect public health and public welfare and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants.

Among these regulations, stationary facilities emitting 100 tons per year of more of any air pollutant must demonstrate their emissions will not cause air pollution in excess of set standards.

The National Resources Defense Council argued before the Court that permits issued to Putnam County Ethanol LLC and POET Biorefining-North Manchester should have classified their facilities as chemical processing plants, which would have triggered review under the Clean Air Act.

            The suit was countered by a law passed by the Indiana General Assembly mirroring an EPA ruling that excluded ethanol facilities from the definition of stationary facilities under the Clean Air Act.  

            The Indiana Supreme Court ruled that since Indiana’s plan to implement the Clear Air Act does not address how to classify fuel ethanol plants, The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is lawfully allowed to interpret how to define ethanol plants.

            “The purpose of the Clean Air Act is to create a framework within which states may regulate and operate,” Justice Steven David wrote in the opinion. “To do so successfully, states and their implementing agencies must be afforded the flexibility to responsively adapt to changing technologies, market fluctuations, environmental conditions, and shifts in policy.”