UCLA

Ultrafine particulate matter (UFP) exposure from aircraft emissions is a growing concern for infant health. This study investigates the association between UFP exposure during pregnancy and the risk of cerebral palsy (CP) and epilepsy in infants born within a 15 km radius of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) between 2008 and 2016. Using birth records from the California Department of Public Health and ground level air pollution data, we evaluated maternal residential UFP exposures, adjusting for neighborhood socioeconomic status, race of the mother, and sex of the infant. The study included 187,289 individuals with 284 CP cases and 120 epilepsy cases. Logistic regression analyses found a consistent increase in the odds of CP for UFP exposure in the third trimester for the second and third quartiles of exposure and close to null associations after adjustment for race, SES and infant sex in the third and fourth exposure quartile (adjOR2nd Q =1.45 [95% CI = 1.00, 2.10]; adjOR3rd Q =1.19 [95% CI = 0.80, 1.74] adjOR4thQ = 1.08 [95% CI = 0.71, 1.66]). For epilepsy, we found no associations with airport UFPs (adjOR2nd Q=1.04 [95% CI = 0.62, 1.73]; adjOR3rd Q = 0.82 [95% CI = 0.48, 1.41]); adjOR4thQ = 0.80 [95% CI = 0.44, 1.45]). However, the sample size for epilepsy cases was small and our statistical power to estimate effects was quite limited. This study is one of the first studies to assess air pollution’s health impacts on these outcomes and the small sample size limited our ability to assess the risks associated with airport UFP exposure.