AIR POLLUTION - AFFECTS IVF

Air pollution is having an effect on the success rate of IVF procedures, a study has claimed.

A team of scientists led by Professor Duanping Liao from Penn State College of Medicine, studied the success rate of conception among women undergoing IVF (In-vitro fertilization ) treatments.

While most air pollution had a widely negative effect on the results, a high presence of nitrogen dioxide showed consistently lower success rates.

Professor Liao, vice chair of the department of public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine, commented: "Since IVF is a well controlled and highly timed process, we have a much better handle on the assessment of the time of exposures to elevated air pollutants in relationship to fertilization, pregnancy, and delivery."

IVF is growing in popularity in the UK as the latest figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority revealed that 36,861 women received IVF treatment in 2007.

From these procedures, a total of 13,672 babies were born.