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Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution and risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring: A nationwide population‐based cohort study – A commentary on Oh and Song 2026
Original title: Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution and risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring: A nationwide population‐based cohort study – A commentary on Oh and Song 2026
Summary
A massive study of over 1.4 million births in South Korea found that babies exposed to higher levels of air pollution (nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide) in the womb had a greater risk of being diagnosed with autism, ADHD, and other neurodevelopmental disorders later in childhood. Animal research backs this up, showing that pollution and microplastics can inflame and disrupt the developing brain. This matters because air quality is something we can actually improve, making it a real opportunity to protect kids' mental health before birth.
This commentary examines how prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution may contribute to the aetiology of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Experimental work demonstrates that gestational exposure to air pollution and micro- and nanoplastics can induce neuroinflammation, synaptic disruption and autism- or attention-related phenotypes in rodents, supporting biological plausibility for pollutant-related NDD risk. Large-scale epidemiological studies have begun to link prenatal traffic-related pollutants with cognitive delay, behavioural difficulties and increased risk of ASD and ADHD, although most data come from Western cohorts. Against this backdrop, a nationwide South Korean cohort (>1.4 million births) reports that higher prenatal nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide exposure is associated with increased risk of clinically diagnosed NDDs into adolescence. These findings underscore prenatal air pollution as a modifiable, population-level risk factor for child mental health.