"Pregnant women living in Texas neighborhoods with higher air levels of benzene – a pollutant often released from oil refineries and traffic exhaust – are more likely to have babies with neural tube defects. Women living in the areas with the highest benzene levels had a two times greater risk for their children to be born with spina bifida. This study is the first to examine the link between environmental levels of benzene and neural tube defects in newborns and adds to the growing body of evidence linking prenatal air pollution exposures to harmful effects on the developing fetus."

Ami Zota and Wendy Hessler summarize an article in Environmental Health Perspectives by PJ Lupo et al. in Environmental Health News October 26, 2010. [2]

SEE ALSO:
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TODAY: "Senate Panel Examining How Chemicals in Daily Life Affect Kids' Health" (CNN) [3]