Traffic Pollution Linked to Low Birth Weight
Car Exhaust Hinders Proper Development of Fetuses
Apr 9, 2009
Pregnant women exposed to high levels of pollution from cars and trucks are more likely to experience problems with their baby’s development. This is the conclusion of a study carried out by researchers from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey.
Health Records Checked
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health on April 9, 2009. Researchers looked at the health histories of 336,000 babies born in New Jersey between 1999 and 2003, using information from birth certificates and hospital discharge records.
Reporting on the study BBC News said the researchers, “Recorded details including each mother’s ethnicity, marital status, education, whether or not she was a smoker - as well as where she lived when her baby was born.” Then, they correlated this information with air pollution statistics reported on a daily basis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in New Jersey. This was applied to the pregnant women living within 10 km of the monitoring stations.
Low Birth Weight Risk Increased
The authors of the study report, “We found significantly increased risk of SGA (small for gestational age) associated with 1st and 3rd trimester PM2.5 (fine particulate matter), and increased risk of VSGA (very small for gestational age) associated with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd trimester NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) concentrations.
Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the team led by Professor David Rich, said: “Our findings suggest that air pollution, perhaps specifically traffic emissions during early and late pregnancy and/or factors associated with residence near a roadway during pregnancy, may affect fetal growth.”
Causes not Clearly Understood
Particulate matter, such as soot, is produced from vehicle exhausts. Very fine particles can travel deep into the lungs and such penetration has been linked to respiratory and heart diseases. The researchers say they are not sure exactly how this might negatively affect birth weights. However, they point out that earlier studies have suggested that air pollution might change cell activity. Or, the pollution might interfere with the fetus getting the proper amounts of nutrients and oxygen.
Pollution Triggers Genetic Changes
The New Jersey research might fall in line with a study carried out Dr. Shuk-mei Ho, director of the Center for Environmental Genetics at the University of Cincinnati.
On February 15, 2009, U.S. News and World Report wrote about her work and said that “Traffic pollution may cause genetic changes in the womb that increase a child’s risk of developing asthma, say U.S. researchers who studied umbilical cord blood from New York.”
Dr. Ho said, “Our data support the concept that environmental exposure can interact with genes during key developmental periods to trigger disease onset later in life, and that tissues are being reprogrammed to become abnormal later.”
Her findings were published in the February 16, 2009 issue of the journal PLoS One.
The message from these two studies and others is that traffic pollution may be causing more negative health outcomes than previously thought.
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