UofU Study finds industrial pollution’s imprint lasts generations

This map shows the industrial facilities that operated near where pregnant women lived that were studied by University of Utah scientists for a new report on the effects of industrial pollution. (Illustration by Sara Grineski et. al., University of Utah Department of Sociology) 

In a groundbreaking study, University of Utah researchers have found strong evidence that exposure to industrial pollution during pregnancy can shape a grandchild’s neurodevelopment. 

A child has a higher risk of an intellectual disability if their grandmothers lived near industrial facilities while pregnant with a parent, especially the mother. Higher density of industrial facilities corresponded to higher risk for the grandchild. 

“We know that breathing polluted air is dangerous for our own health now, but it’s scary to imagine what it could do to people’s unborn grandchildren,” said Sara Grineski, professor in the Department of Sociology at the UofU and lead author of the study. “The evidence from this study and many others force us to ask: What will be the legacy of the decisions that we make today?”

About 1 percent of Americans have an intellectual disability. Previous research shows that a child’s risk of an intellectual disability is higher when directly exposed to toxins in the womb, for example, if the mother accidentally ingests lead or mercury. Research on intergenerational air pollution exposure is rarer, but Grineski is leading in this area. She and colleagues have published studies focused on Utah that link the risk of an intellectual disability to prenatal exposure to ozone, particulate matter and industrial pollution.

This study fills a significant knowledge gap: Does industrial pollution impact future generations who were not directly exposed?

“It’s much easier to study multigenerational effects on animals. The research in humans is much harder to do — we have longer lifespans, we’re not going to expose people to toxins on purpose, and it’s hard to get data on people who were alive 80 years ago,” said Grineski. “But it’s really important, especially as you think about intergenerational equity: What do we need to do to protect our future children and grandchildren?”

The study was published on Aug. 10 in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Utah’s Polluting Past

The researchers had to get creative. They used the Utah Registry for Autism and Developmental Disabilities and the Utah Population Database to identify children diagnosed with an intellectual disability, and a control population with no record of a diagnosis, born in any Utah county between 2000 and 2014.

The Utah Population Database is a repository of in-depth Utah family histories that chronicle decades of medical records and demographic information. It’s the only one of its kind in the U.S. and one of very few worldwide. The database provided birth certificates with the residential addresses of the children’s parents and grandparents, allowing the researchers the rare opportunity to assess how industrial the neighborhood was during pregnancy.

Roger Renteria, doctoral candidate in the UofU’s Department of Sociology, and Kevin Ramos, former undergraduate researcher who majored in GIS, led efforts to calculate industrial exposures experienced by the child’s mother while she was pregnant with the child, the maternal grandmother while she was pregnant with the child’s mother, and the paternal grandmother while she was pregnant with the child’s father.

“It’s easy to overlook how much our surroundings influence our development and overall health. While working with the data, I discovered polluting industries near my own home that I hadn’t known about,” said Ramos, now a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Very few studies have explored this issue and we believe our work is only beginning to uncover the long-term impacts industrial pollutants may have across generations.”

The historical data on polluting Utah businesses came from Dun & Bradstreet business directories. In addition to location and years of operation, the D&B also had every Utah industrial facility’s North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. They used the NAICS codes to estimate potential health risks that may be associated with facilities of that type. They calculated facility densities within three kilometers and five kilometers during the maternal and paternal grandmothers’ pregnancy.

“Industrial activity often produces concentrated releases of toxic pollutants that can persist in soil, air and water for decades,” Renteria said. “Linking facility data to historical residential addresses makes industrial exposure data especially valuable for studying multigenerational health impacts, which is rarely possible with other environmental hazards.”

The child was at higher risk of an intellectual disability if any grandparent was exposed to pollution during pregnancy with either parent. However, the odds were highest with exposure to the maternal grandmother pregnant with the child’s mom. Higher density of industrial facilities corresponded to higher risk for the child.

Grineski’s research will further explore pollution exposure’s impact on descendants.

“Ancestral exposures, with present-day exposures, may contribute to cumulative health risks in people,” said Grineski. “The multigenerational impacts of toxics must be taken seriously by medical professionals, government agencies and anyone concerned with protecting future generations.”

Other authors of the study include Timothy Collins of the UofU’s School of Environment, Society & Sustainability; James VanDerslice of UofU Health’s Department of Family and Preventative Medicine; and Deborah Bilder and Amanda Bakian of UofU Health’s Department of Psychiatry and the Huntsman Mental Health Institute. The work was funded in part by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

This article was furnished by the University of Utah and distributed through Newswise.