Two stories related to air pollution have made headlines recently.

Air Pollution and Children's Asthma 

A study out of USC found that children living near freeways are more likely to suffer from asthma because of higher levels of pollution. This was applied to data for Bay Area Counties in a front page story in the Oakland Tribune. 

Air Pollution and Low Birth Weight

A large international study has found that exposure to air pollution during pregnancy increases the chance of low birth weight. A summary of the research can be found in NYTimes Well Blog. Information from the study published in Environmental Health Perspectives can be found here.