New U of U study expands on ozone’s connection to developmental issues in unborn children
A recent University of Utah study expands on the body of knowledge that ozone pollution can impact the development of unborn children. According to the American Lung Association, the urban stretch between Provo and Salt Lake City had the ninth worst ozone pollution in the country in 2024. Increased oil and gas development in Utah’s Uinta Basin has lead to an increase in precursors of ozone, and the area has been out of attainment of federal standards in recent years.
Fox13 asked UPHE’s Dr. Brian Moench to weigh in on the study’s findings, “Those kinds of disabilities can be things like autism, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities of any kind, but this dovetails very nicely into literally hundreds of other research papers that have been able to establish that air pollution of all types, particulate matter and ozone, are a significant risk factor for impaired organ development across the board,
“At that stage, where researchers found the most effect during the 2nd trimester, the fetus is developing or adding 250,000 brain cells per minute, reaching a total of about 100 billion, so if there’s any sort of interruption or impaired vascular delivery of nutrition from the mother to the fetus, you can see that there could be potentially some developmental problems.”
Find more studies on pollution’s effect on fetal development here.