Is Smog Clouding Our Intelligence?

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There’s something in the air.

Researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health recently released a study suggesting that better air quality would boost both intelligence and income.

Earlier studies by the same research team had already established a link between IQ and air quality for young children. One study concluded that the IQs of children born to non-smoking mothers who had been exposed to higher levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) air pollution during pregnancy were three points lower than those of children born to mothers of similar backgrounds who'd been exposed to lower levels.

The new study aimed to determine how cleaning up the air in one major city—specifically, its PAH levels—could affect the intellectual development of children. From the IQ data for nearly 64,000 children born to women on Medicaid in New York City, who shared similar socio-demographic status, the team concluded that a hypothetical 25% reduction of PAH levels in the city would have lead to gains in IQ that would boost educational achievement and future earnings potential. In fact, such a reduction in air pollution, they calculated, should translate to increased lifetime earnings of $215 million, though even that figure may be lowballing it, since the earnings estimates don’t include potential economic gains due to the broad reduction in neurotoxic, respiratory and carcinogenic effects linked to PAH.

Worried about the brains and wallets of your present or future progeny? You may want to consider leaving the nation's major ozone metropolises like Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C., and start...fresh in:

• Ames-Boone, Iowa, the cleanest American city, in terms of ozone air pollution;
• Cheyenne, Wyoming, the cleanest city in terms of year-round particle pollution; or
• Asheville-Brevard, North Carolina, the cleanest metro area in terms of short-term particle pollution.

Get the full list of the cleanest U.S. cities here. But keep in mind, the majority of the country’s billionaires reside in California and New York. Must be something in the air?

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