For pregnant women, breathing in air pollution from vehicles, heating and coal power plants increases the risk of having a low birth weight baby, an international study said Wednesday.

The research, the most extensive of its kind on the link between air pollution and fetal development, found that the higher the pollution, the greater the rate of children born with a low weight. It was published in the US journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Scientists analyzed data from more than three million births in nine nations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Most of the data was collected from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, with some obtained earlier.

Low birth weight -- below 5.5 pounds, or 2.5 kilograms -- is linked to serious health problems, including a higher risk of complications or death in the weeks right after birth, as well as chronic health problems later in life, said lead author Payam Dadvand of the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Barcelona.

Co-lead investigator Tracey Woodruff said the pollution is ubiquitous. “What‘s significant is that these are air pollution levels to which practically everyone in the world is commonly exposed,” said Woodruff, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive sciences at UC San Francisco.

“These microscopic particles, which are smaller than the width of a human hair, are in the air that we all breathe.”

But she noted that nations with tighter air pollution restrictions have lower levels of the pollutants.

“In the United States, we have shown over the last several decades that the benefits to health and well-being from reducing air pollution are far greater than the costs,” Woodruff added. “This is a lesson that all nations can learn from.” (AFP)



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임산부 오염노출, 저체중아 출산 확률 ↑

임신한 여성이 대기 오염에 많이 노출될수록 저체중의 아이를 출산할 가능성이 높은 것으로 드러났다.

스페인 바르셀로나에 위치한 환경역학연구센터(Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology)의 파얌 대드밴드(Payam Dadvand)가 책임자로 참가한 본 연구는 북미, 남미, 유럽, 아시아, 오스트레일리아에 걸쳐 3백만명의 신생아를 조사했다. 대부분 1990년대 중반에서 2000년대 후반에 태어난 신생아들이었다.

출생 시 저체중(2.5kg 미만)은 출생 후 수 주 내에 영아가 사망하는 원인이 되기도 하며 일생에 걸쳐 만성적 질병을 앓게 될 위험도 갖게 된다.

연구자 트레이시 우드러프(Tracey Woodruff)는 대기오염은 현대사회 어디에서나 존재하는 것이라고 말했다. “아주 가는 입자의 오염물질이 어디에나 존재합니다.” 그녀는 이어 대기오염 규제가 필요하다고 역설했다. “대기오염이 줄이는 것의 이점이 그 비용보다 훨씬 큰 것이 이미 입증되었습니다.”라고 말했다.

연구는 미국 환경의학저널(US journal Environmental Health Perspectives)에 실렸다. (코리아헤럴드)