Dhaka, Sept. 20 -- Decades of clean-air policy initiatives are directly boosting early childhood cognitive processing, according to long-term research led by Columbia University.

The two-decade investigation, conducted by Prof Frederica Perera and researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, tracked over 1,100 mother-child pairs across northern Manhattan and the South Bronx, according to the Guardian.

Researchers evaluated children at ages one, two, and three, testing core milestones including memory, sensory perception, spatial problem-solving, and language comprehension.

Initial findings established a strong link between prenatal exposure to toxic air pollutants and impaired neurodevelopment.

However, as N...