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It is a fact that fossil fuels from diesel cars and coal-powered fire stations cause dangerous tiny particulate pollution. Sooty air pollution in towns and cities increases the chances of women giving birth to small babies, new research has shown. A study involving millions of births around the world found that higher pollution levels raised the risk of low birth-weight. Although small, the effect is said to be statistically significant. At national population scales it could have an important impact on child health, said the researchers. Babies are underweight at birth if they tip the scales at less than 2.5kgs, or 5lbs 8oz. They face an increased risk of dying in infancy, as well as chronic poor health and impaired mental development. The new study, the largest of its kind ever conducted, focused on tiny sooty carbon particles called PM10s and even smaller PM2.5s which are known to be linked to heart and lung problems and early death. They originate from a number of sources, including diesel exhausts and the chimneys of coal-fired power stations and factories. Professor Tanja Pless-Mulloli, who led the UK arm of the study at the Newcastle University, said: "As air pollution increases we can see that more babies are smaller at birth, which in turn puts them at risk of poor health later in life. "These microscopic particles, five times smaller than the width of a human hair, are part of the air we breathe every day. What we have shown definitively is that these levels are already having an effect on pregnant mothers." The research, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, examined the impact of a 10 microgram per cubic meter increase in average exposure to pollution particles over the course of a pregnancy. Furthermore, a continual trend of elevated low birth-weight risk with higher levels of air pollution also showed. For PM10s, this raised the chances of having a low birth-weight baby by 0.03%, which was said to be statisticall

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With the global economy growing more slowly than expected, worries about a potential US government shutdown and the possibility of a default are keeping nations around the world and investors, cautious. Republicans in the US House of Representatives have so far refused to give in to President Barack Obama's demands for straightforward bills keeping the government running beyond September 30. House Republicans also challenged Obama on the debt ceiling increase, the amount the government is allowed to borrow; that the Treasury Department of the world's largest economy says is urgently needed by October 17. There is an October 1 deadline for Congress and the President to sign off on an emergency spending bill to avert a government shutdown. This is not the critical event that immediately leads to the risk of impending default - that comes on October 17 according to US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew - but it is significant enough that it can undermine investor confidence and further stymie an economic recovery. Last week Lew cautioned Congress that the United States would exhaust its borrowing capacity no later than October 17, at which point it would have only about $30bn in cash on hand. The fresh estimate adds another layer of pressure on lawmakers to raise the $16.7tn debt limit and comes as Congress struggles to pass a spending bill to keep the government funded beyond October 1, when the new fiscal year starts. "If the government should ultimately become unable to pay all of its bills, the results could be catastrophic," Lew warned in a letter to congressional leaders. The fate of the debt ceiling is up in the air with Democratic and Republican lawmakers once again deeply divided over how to extend the Treasury's borrowing authority. The trouble lies in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives push for a bill that includes a delay or complete halt to the Affordable Care Act (nicknamed "Obamacare") legislation passed in 2010 and set