Objective To explore damaging effect of exposure to benzo[a]pyrene（BaP）on children′s mental development through monitoring the concentration of BaP in the air of Chongqing urban area

considering the situation that children of 06 years old with abnormal mental development

which screened out by standardized revision of Denver Developmental Screening Table（DDST）.Methods Using High Performance Liquid Chromatography（HPLC）method to monitor the concentration of BaP in the air and according to the average gradient of concentration divided the area into high pollution area

medium pollution area and low pollution area and control area correspondingly;a total of 467 children aged 0to 6years old were selected respectively from each area for high

medium and low exposure group and control group as the objects of study.Using self-designed children general situation questionnaire to obtain general information and DDST was adopted to assess children′s mental development.Results the farther from the pollution sources

the lower concentration of the BaP in the air（F=2 014.38

P

<

0.01）.The preliminary screen found that 54cases（11.6%）with suspicious/abnormal mental development

among which detection rate of high exposure group

medium exposure group and low exposure group and control group was 15.6%

12.8%

10.7% and 7.0%

and the difference was not statistically significant（χ

2

=4.444

P=0.217）.The logistic regression analysis results showed that the main influencing factors of children′s mental development were the concentration of BaP in the air

at ordinary times whether exposure to cigarette smoke or not and mother′s cultural quality.Conclusion BaP exposure may have damage effect on 0to 6year-old children′s mental development

and this can be evidence for the future study the toxic effects of BaP on children′s neural development.