Traffic hydrocarbons linked to lower IQs in kids

Prenatal exposures to common air pollutants correlate with drop in intelligence scores

Here’s a dirty little secret about polluted urban air: It can shave almost 5 points off of a young child’s IQ, a new report suggests.

That’s no small loss, says Kimberly Gray, whose federal agency cofinanced the study, to appear in the August Pediatrics.