A study has suggested that pregnant women exposed to air pollution, even at relatively low levels, give birth to smaller babies and can be vulnerable to asthma and higher rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) as they grow older. But those living in a greener area could help counteract this effect, it said, emphasizing that green areas tend to have lower traffic or that plants help to clear the air of pollution, or green areas may mean it’s easier for pregnant women to be physically active.
The study will be presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Milan, Italy. The research also shows that women living in greener areas give birth to bigger babies and this may help counteract the effects of pollution.
The study was based on data from the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) study and presented by Robin Mzati Sinsamala, a researcher in the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Bergen (UiB), Norway. It included 4286 children and their mothers living in five European countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Estonia).
The researchers found that higher levels of air pollution were linked with lower birth weights, with PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and BC associated with average reductions in birth weight of 56g, 46g, 48g and 48g, respectively. When researchers took greenness into account, the effect of air pollution on birth weight was reduced. Women who lived in greener areas had babies with slightly higher birth weight (27g heavier on average) than mothers living in less green areas.