Air pollution can affect the size of the newborn

30/09/2011

This study was conducted in a population of more than 2,000 mother-infant pairs in four of the INMA cohorts Project: Asturias, Gipuzkoa, Sabadell and Valencia. Made by several authors INMA (Marisa Estarlich, Ferran Ballester, Inmaculada Aguilera, Ana Fernandez, Aitana Lertxundi, Sabrina Llop, Carmen Freire, Adonino Tardón, Mikel Basterrechea, Carmen Iñiguez and Jordi Sunyer, director of INMA project), this work was published last March in the prestigious journal “Environ Health Perspectives’.
He did this under the heading of “Residential Exposure to Outdoor Air Pollution During Pregnancy and Anthropometric Measures at Birth in a Multicenter Cohort in Spain ‘, which translates as’ residential exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and anthropometric measurements at birth in multiple cohort in Spain ‘, and the same is to analyze the relationship between air pollution during pregnancy and anthropometric measurements at birth.

Decline of 1 mm
After analyzing the data found a negative association between NO2 pollution and height at birth, a decrease of 1 mm for every 10 ug/m3 increase in contaminant levels outside the housing of pregnant women.

The study shows a great heterogeneity in the levels of exposure to air pollution in different cohorts. For example, in areas with high traffic density is dominated by high levels of NO2, and in areas of industrial accent stands out the presence of benzene.
Subsequent consequences
Perhaps the decrease of 1 mm does not seem much, but this change could be increased by 2{3effe4377b6f02be2524d084f7d03914ac32a2b62c0a056ca3444e58c1f10d0b} risk of being small for gestational age in the workshop. In fact, developmental problems in newborns can have consequences throughout the life of the newborn, and even in adulthood, so this study and the results, the conclusions derived thereof, are vital public health importance.

Together with data obtained by Marisa Estarlich and other co-authors, it is noteworthy that few studies have evaluated the relationship between height and air pollution, and that which concerns us here is the first multicenter study in Spain on the relationship between air pollution during pregnancy and the birth size.
Research continues
Following the publication of this study, is currently working on conducting a joint article of the 4 cohorts, to assess air pollution and its relationship with the small size for gestational age and preterm birth, and the relationship prenatal exposure to air pollution and fetal growth measured by ultrasound.

Remember that this is the second piece we make reference to the INMA project results published in scientific journals. A dynamic that we want to keep once a month, which began with the ‘Positioning INMA to fish consumption for pregnant women and children’.

*Marisa Estarlich a degree in statistics, research technician, working in the area of research in Environment and Health Research Center for Advanced Public Health (Valencia).