Freeways' tainted air harms children's lungs, experts say

Lifelong damage is found in 13-year study of 3,600 Southland youngsters living within 500 yards of a highway.
By Thomas H. Maugh II
LA Times

In the largest and longest study of its kind, USC researchers have found that children living near busy highways have significant impairments in the development of their lungs that can lead to respiratory problems for the rest of their lives.

The 13-year study of more than 3,600 children in 12 Central and Southern California communities found that the damage from living within 500 yards of a freeway is about the same as that from living in communities with the highest pollution levels, the team reported Thursday in the online version of the medical journal Lancet.

"If you live in a high-pollution area and live near a busy road, you get a doubling" of the damage, said lead author W. James Gauderman, an epidemiologist at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

"Someone suffering a pollution-related deficit in lung function as a child will probably have less than healthy lungs all of his or her life," he said.

The greatest damage appears to be in the small airways of the lung and is normally associated with the fine particulate matter emitted by automobiles.

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