Air pollution and the effect it has on the environment and our health can be seen all around us. While there are different stakeholders taking a variety of steps to combat it, the results of its long-term exposure can be seen among individuals of different age groups. A new study indicates that having a portable air cleaner can especially help in reducing the negative impacts of air pollution on the development of a child's brain. 

The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that the children born to mothers who had used the air cleaners had an average full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) that was 2.8-points higher than the group that did not use an air cleaner during pregnancy.

"These results, combined with evidence from previous studies, strongly implicate air pollution as a threat to brain development," said researcher Ryan Allen from Simon Fraser University, in Canada. The team recruited 540 pregnant women in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to participate in the study.