Can Air Pollution Affect Pregnant Womens' Placenta?

image credit: inhabitat.com

Even unborn babies suffer from the poor quality of our air, new research shows. Previous research has linked complications such as premature birth, low birth weight, infant mortality, and childhood respiratory problems to a pregnant woman’s exposure to air pollution. 

The present paper adds to that body of evidence, explaining that when pregnant women breathe polluted air, particles of soot are able to travel through the bloodstream to the placenta.

The smell of soot in the morning

The findings were presented by Dr. Norrice Liu, a pediatrician and clinical research fellow, and Dr. Lisa Miyashita, a post-doctoral researcher Sunday at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Paris.

    “We’ve known for a while that air pollution affects foetal development and can continue to affect babies after birth and throughout their lives,” Dr. Miyashita explained.

    “We were interested to see if these effects could be due to pollution particles moving from the mother’s lungs to the placenta. Until now, there has been very little evidence that inhaled particles get into the blood from the lung.”

Air pollution linked to irregular menstrual cycles

via theworldvibe.com

"The air your teenage daughter breathes may be causing irregular menstrual cycles. Well documented negative health effects from air pollution exposure include infertility, metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome. This study is the first to show that exposure to air pollution among teen girls (ages 14-18) is associated with slightly increased chances of menstrual irregularity and longer time to achieve such regularity in high school and early adulthood.

"While air pollution exposures have been linked to cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, this study suggests there may be other systems, such as the reproductive endocrine system, that are affected as well," said corresponding author Shruthi Mahalingaiah, MD, MS, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine and a physician in obstetrics and gynecology at Boston Medical Center.

The menstrual cycle is responsive to hormonal regulation. Particulate matter air pollution has demonstrated hormonal activity. However, it was not known if air pollution was associated with menstrual cycle regularity, until now.

The researchers used health and location data gathered in the Nurses' Health Study 2 plus air pollution exposure metrics from the EPA air quality monitoring system to understand a participants' exposure during a particular time window. They found exposure to air pollution in during high school was correlated with menstrual cycle irregularity.

"Implications on human disease may come through reducing emissions on a global and individual level," said Mahalingaiah.

The findings appear in the journal Human Reproduction."

Source:https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180125120441.htm

Air pollution exposure during pregnancy linked with asthma risk

Photo Credit: medicaldaily.com

"Babies born to mothers exposed to air pollution from traffic sources during pregnancy have an increased risk of developing asthma before the age of 5 years, according to new findings.

Published yesterday (09 February, 2016) in the European Respiratory Journal, the new research is one of the largest studies to look at the role of variation in air pollution in urban areas and the development of asthma.

Over 65,000 Canadian children were included in the study and followed up from birth until the age of 10 years. The researchers monitored physician-diagnosed asthma cases among this group and also assessed exposure of the mother's to air pollutants during pregnancy. Each mother's postcode was used and exposure level was determined using three measures:

• Land use regression models, which combine traffic-related air pollutant monitoring data and geographical information around the home address
• Measurements of air pollutants from monitoring stations close to each mother
• Assessing whether each mother in the study lived close to a major road.

The measurements focused mainly on traffic-related pollutants, including black carbon, fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and nitric oxide..."

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