Does air pollution harm humans? Did people drop dead while trying to walk through the polluted fog inversions in London or Donora (Pittsburg)? As we know, people died and many others were permanently harmed. It is also recorded that the local population knew how harmful the pollution was but believed it was a necessary part of prosperity.
It is now known that air pollution can come through the “filter” of the placenta. Exposure to air pollution is associated with low birth weight, preterm birth and other bad outcomes. New research by biophysicist Hannelore Bove has shown with laser pulses minute particles of black carbon which are produced by incomplete combustion of fossils fuels on both sides of the placenta, maternal and fetal. Black carbon particles are especially harmful as the frequently are coated with toxic substances like heavy metals.
In the womb, the fetus’s lungs are filled with fluid. In fact, if there is no fluid the lungs don’t develop correctly. At the moment of birth the fluid drains away and the lungs inflate and the first circuit of blood through the lungs occurs to deliver oxygen to the rest of the body and remove carbon dioxide.
According to the American Lung Association lungs are wonderful, important organs. A person can live for two weeks without food, two days without water but only two minutes without air. According to estimates the average urban dweller inhales about 20 billion foreign particles every day. If the invading particle is big enough or irritating enough, it is sneezed or coughed back out. Smaller particles are trapped in the mucus of your nose or further down in the lung’s bronchi or tubules. At the end of the smaller and smaller tubules are clusters of tiny sacs. These sacs are called alveoli. Alveoli are wrapped in tiny blood vessel called capillaries and are filled with oxygen-rich blood. Oxygen goes into the blood in the capillaries and carbon dioxide goes out.
These tubules are lined with millions and millions of hair-like cilia coated with mucus that acting like paddles sweep the particles up and hopefully out of the lungs to be swallowed and digested by the acids in the stomach.
Back to those black carbon particles found on the mother and the baby’s side of the placenta. There is a great deal of evidence about the harmful effects of air pollution. It can cause permanent and long-lasting damage to children. Exposure to polluted air during critical developmental stages can lead to respiratory problems, impaired lung growth, affect brain development and cognitive abilities. Exposure to air pollution, especially particulate matter, can damage brain cells during critical developmental periods. There are even studies suggesting a link between air pollution and neurodevelopmental disorders, including certain types of Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
Children are more vulnerable because they breathe more rapidly than adults, inhaling a greater volume of pollutants and the developing brains and bodies are more susceptible to damage from the toxins.
Demand our children be protected from air pollution.
By Sally Robinson, MD
Keeping Kids Healthy
University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)
Published August 2025