The Daily News trumpets a recently-released study which says that, of 249 pregnant women in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, those that breathed more truck and car exhaust had children who scored worse on IQ tests. (This appears in the August issue of Pediatrics, which also includes the shocking results of a study called "Paternal Depressive Symptoms During Pregnancy Are Related to Excessive Infant Crying." NO WAY.) This is some shocking data! Let's take a look inside!

So this bit of science says that these kids with higher exposure to pollution scored worse. But let's look at the cohorts!

Among the mothers who had "high exposure" during pregnancy, nearly 50% of them had no high school degree, and only 11% of them were married. Among mothers who had low exposure? More than 2/3rds of them had a high school degree, and 15% of them were married. Oh, I don't know, maybe having, on average, more experience with education and another person around to help with child development might have an effect on IQ scores among children as well? Or you know, you can extrapolate that poverty makes you do worse in testing and in schools, when you take into account the (on-average) correlation between school degree and future income.

Actually you could make the case for just about anything with these numbers. Though I'm sure that breathing truck exhaust in the womb isn't so good for you as well!