Emerging Early Life Environmental Exposures and Lung Development

During in utero growth the lung is highly susceptible to environmental exposures. Any exposure that has the capacity to impair lung development is likely to result in significant deficits in post-natal lung structure and function. Such deficits will alter growth trajectories, impair the capacity of the lung to clear pathogens and increase the risk of chronic lung disease in later life. This is likely to increase the health burden on the community by decreasing the age at which respiratory morbidity occurs and/or decreasing life expectancy. These effects will occur in addition to any impact that such an exposure has on immune function. In this review article we systematically summarize the evidence for an impact on lung development of 1) maternal ingestion of arsenic contaminated drinking water and, 2) maternal vitamin D deficiency. Both of these environmental exposures are global public health problems that are strongly linked to chronic lung disease.