Pollution can strike even before birth…

[4 July 2007 - 10h51]

A French-German research team has recently shown the dangers of atmospheric pollution for the health of the unborn child! The more fine particles a pregnant woman inhales, the higher the risk that she will give birth to an underweight baby.

The German National Research Centre for the Environment and Health, and INSERM (the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research) monitored 1,016 women and their children born in Munich in 1998 and 1999, and living in 40 different districts of the Bavarian capital.

The researchers measured the pollution levels in each of these districts. They focused particularly on the fine particles emitted by diesel fuel vehicles – particles that have been repeatedly condemned as representing a danger to health. The women responded to a questionnaire about their living habits so that other possible risk factors associated with low birth weight – such as smoking for example! – could be taken into account.

According to the report’s author, “the proportion of infants presenting with a low birth weight (under 3 kilos) has been strongly linked to a high level of exposure to fine particles in the mothers”. Yet another proof of the direct relationship between fine particles and health risks. It would seem then that while one swallow doesn’t make a summer, when they start lining up on the telephone wires you can be sure that autumn is on the way…

Source : INSERM, German National Research Centre for Environment and Health, 25 June 2007

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