Premature births linked to busy roads.

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I stumbled across an interesting article this morning on Science Network WA. The work was conducted at QUT, Queensland, surveying nearly 1000 women from Logan City. The study found that living within 400 meters of freeway and road clusters can induce premature births as a result of increased air pollution. Babies were being delivered at 38.2 weeks instead of the usual 40 weeks.


Whilst some of you might be thinking that many doctors consider 38 weeks to be “full term”, a much larger study, conducted in 2009 in California, identified strikingly worse statistics. The group reviewed the births of more than 81 000 infants between 1997 and 2006. They found that women living near the worst traffic-generated air pollution have a staggering 128% increased risk of delivering a baby before 30 weeks. In addition, 42% of these women showed increased symptoms of preeclampsia, a pregnancy-induced high blood pressure condition in the mother that can be dangerous to both the mother and child. For less-severe premmie babies, the chances of delivery between 30-37 weeks were 30%.

Scientists are unsure how the increased air pollution can trigger premature delivery. They suspect that pollutants could either interfere with the placental delivery of nutrients to the foetus, or trigger oxidative stress, particularly from vehicle exhaust fumes.

Now, you probably can’t change where you live. However, this research can help to make pregnant women aware of the risks of air pollution, and arm them with the information they need to decide if it is worth venturing out into the more polluted areas – particularly during the later stages of pregnancy or if they are already pre-exposed or have a history of preeclampsia in previous pregnancies.
At the very least, keep the air con on in the car, and the windows shut!

Full article on the California study:
http://www.ecofriendlypack.com/eco-friendly/car-pollution/
Full article on the QUT study:
http://www.sciencewa.net.au/index.php?/health-and-medicine/health-and-medicine/premature-births-linked-to-busy-roads.html