Skeletal maturation of children living in areas with a different contamination of the atmosphere.

Based on the evaluation of more than 5000 X-rays pictures of the left hand and wrist of children living in areas with a different degree of atmospheric contamination in the CSSR, GDR and GFR evidence was provided that children living in areas with a high concentration of industrial exhalations are, as compared with reletively clean areas, significantly retarded in their skeletal maturation. This retardation was in the great majority greater in boys than girls which indicates a different reactivity of the two sexes to noxious agents of the external environment.