A new study finds that children who live in neighborhoods with heavy traffic pollution have lower IQs and score worse on other tests of intelligence and memory than children who breathe cleaner air. The effect of pollution on intelligence was similar to that seen in children whose mothers smoked 10 cigarettes a day while pregnant, or in kids who have been exposed to lead. The research team suggests that traffic pollution may exert harmful effects by causing inflammation and oxidative damage to the brain. The report on the Boston study is published in American Journal of Epidemiology, February 1, 2008.