London, Dec 7 (PTI) Pregnant women exposed to airpollution from road traffic are more likely to give birth tobabies that are underweight or smaller than they should be, astudy conducted in the UK warns.
However, when it comes to traffic-related noise, thestudy of more than half a million infants, published in TheBMJ, found no conclusive effect on babies' health.
Cutting the average concentration of fine particlepollution emitted by London's road traffic by just 10 percent could prevent around 90 babies a year (three per cent ofcases) being born with low birth weight.
The findings led by researchers at Imperial CollegeLondon could be applicable to other cities in the UK andacross Europe with comparable levels of road trafficpollution, highlighting the need for environmental healthpolicies to improve air quality in urban areas.
Previous studies have shown a link between air pollution,pregnancy complications and childhood illness, but studies ofnoise pollution in pregnancy have provided conflictingresults.
The latest study looked at the link between exposure toair and noise pollution from road traffic during pregnancyand the effect on measures of birth weight – both low birthweight (less than 2,500 grammes) and being born small forgestational age.
The study focused on records of more than half a million(540,365) babies born in the Greater London area between 2006and 2010, along with the mother's home address location.
Researchers estimated average monthly concentrations ofpollutants related to road traffic, including nitrogendioxide (NO2), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) fromtraffic exhaust and non-exhaust sources, such as brakes ortyre wear, as well as larger particulate matter (PM10).
Average day and night-time road traffic noise levels werealso estimated.
They found higher levels of these air pollutants,particularly PM2.5, were associated with two per cent to sixper cent increased odds of low birth weight and one per centto three per cent increased odds of being small forgestational age.
"Our study has shown that a small but significantproportion of babies born underweight in London are directlyattributable to exposure to air pollution, particularly tosmall particles produced by road traffic," said MireilleToledano from Imperial.
"Babies born with low birth weight or who are small fortheir gestational age, are at increased risk of dying withintheir first month, as well as diseases in later life, such ascardiovascular disease," said Toledano.
"Any policies aimed at reducing road traffic pollution inurban environments could therefore help to reduce the healthimpact on unborn babies and their life-long disease risk,"she said. PTI SARSAR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.