Assessment of potential health impacts from transplacental exposure to carcinogenic air pollutants

Air pollution has known adverse health effects, including chronic effects such as some cancers. Groups susceptible to air pollutants include pregnant women and children. The ACRG are collaborating with the Chulabhorn Research Institute in Thailand to investigate the effects of some air pollutants on pregnant women and their children. This study will provide new information on the method by which pollutants may cause cancer in children through exposure to their pregnant mothers.

Previous collaborations with CRI funded by the Newton Fund and have shown high levels of pollutants within aerosols in Bangkok, with some carcinogenic compounds related to traffic emission concentrated in the smaller inhalable size fractions. The ACRG will continue to investigate pollutants concentrated within aerosol and build pollutant maps of Bangkok and the surrounding area using WRF-Chem modelling software, validated by field measurements.

Pregnant volunteers from two locations in Thailand, one of high pollution levels and one of low pollutant levels, are being recruited to take part in the study. The researchers will measure the amount of pollution that these women are exposed to, looking at a range of different particles and chemicals present in the air where they live. The women will donate biological samples from themselves, and samples of the placenta and umbilical cord blood once their babies are born. From these samples, the team in Thailand will look for biomarkers of exposure, which will indicate the risk of developing cancer in the future.

Using pollutant modelling, and measurements in both Bristol and Bangkok, we will be able to estimate the childhood cancer risk associated with air pollution in Thailand and the UK. This research is funded by Children with Cancer UK.