LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuter) - Air pollution can stunt the growth of babies in
the womb, the New Scientist magazine reported on Thursday. 

American, Polish, and Czech scientists reached the conclusion after carrying
out studies in heavily polluted regions of Eastern Europe. But the
researchers fear that children born in urban areas in the West may also be
affected. ``It is a cause for concern which we are planning to
investigate,'' said Frederica Perera of Columbia University in New York. 

Perera said that Polish babies whose mothers were exposed while pregnant to
high levels of pollutant particles of less than 10 micrometres in diameter,
were born with small heads and bodies. Perera told a medical conference in
Budapest last week that children may run an increased risk of cancer and
that their subsequent ability to learn could suffer. 

A study carried out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found
similar results in research in Northern Bohemia in the Czech republic, the
New Scientist said. 

Perera's study analysed blood samples from the umbilical cords of 163 babies
from Krakow and Limanowe [Limanowa - Pawel] in Poland. She measured how the
DNA of each child had been damaged by compounds called polycylic aromatic
hydrocargons (PAHs) which are produced when fuel burns and coat the tiny
pollutant particles. 

These particles can cause mutations in human DNA and increase the
probability of cancer. Perera believes that embryos are particularly
vulnerable to the effects of atmospheric pollution because they are less
able to repair damaged DNA. 

While levels of toxins are generally lower in the West than in the most
polluted areas of Eastern Europe, Perera doubts that there is a threshold
concentration below which air pollution poses no threat to foetuses. PAHs
are pervasive. You find them in the air in urban industrialised areas around
the world,'' Perera told the New Scientist.

Leslie Byster
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition

hany eve folyik ez a jatek pontosan..........?
---------------------------------
UKRAINE RECONSIDERS CLOSING CHORNOBYL REACTOR. Yurii Kostenko,
environmental protection and nuclear safety minister, said Ukraine may
reconsider its pledge to shut down Chornobyl reactor no. 1 by the end of
October, Western and Russian media reported on 15 October. According to
Kostenko, closing one reactor could make another one prone to an
accident due to a lack of heat in the coming winter. Chornobyl's two
working reactors produce 5% of Ukraine's electricity. During this
month's meeting in Paris between Ukrainian and G-7 experts, Ukraine
promised to close one of the two reactors in return for an 118 million
ecu ($147 million) grant allotted to starting the process of shutting
down the plant. The G-7 pledged a total of $3.1 billion in aid to
Ukraine for shutting down Chornobyl by 2000. -- Oleg Varfolomeyev
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