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| A premature baby in an incubator. Image credit: saboteur365 |
A new research finding published in the
journal Environmental Health reveals that exposure to high levels of air
pollution in pregnancy may increase the risk of having a stillbirth.
Stillbirth is a baby born dead after 20
weeks of pregnancy. If the baby dies before 24 completed weeks, it is called a
miscarriage or late fetal loss.
Most stillbirths happen before a woman
goes into labour, but a small number happen during labour and birth.
For the study, researchers examined
about 225,000 births of single babies in Ohio between 2007 and 2010. More than
19,000 of them were premature deliveries.
Exposure to high levels of small
particle air pollution during pregnancy was associated with a 19 percent
increased risk of preterm birth. The risk was greatest when high levels of
exposure occurred during the third trimester, the study found.
The type of air pollution examined in
the study is composed of small particles from car exhaust or burning wood, coal
and other fossil fuels. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
this type of air pollution can be inhaled deep into the lungs.
It was stated that the report doesn't
prove that exposure to air pollution causes premature births, but the
researchers believe the association is significant.
