Pollution: Compliance with air quality guidelines can prevent 7% of pregnancy losses in South Asia, the study concluded

Pollution: Compliance with air quality guidelines can prevent 7% of pregnancy losses in South Asia, the study concluded

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The researchers found that about 349,681 pregnancy losses each year in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan were associated with poor air quality.

Published in the Lancet Planetary Health newspaper on Wednesday, the study suggests that if these countries met India’s air quality standard, this could have prevented 7% of annual pregnancy losses.
Dirty air was previously associated with an increase in spontaneous abortions, premature births and low birth weight among children, as a result of the effects of pollution on the mother. Other research found that pollution can rupture the mother’s placenta and potentially reach fetuses in the womb.

But the study is believed to be the first of its kind to quantify the effect of environmental pollution on pregnancy loss in South Asia – one of the most polluted regions on Earth – and the authors say their findings are important for improving health. public and maternal. especially in low-income countries.

“South Asia has the largest burden of pregnancy loss globally and is one of the most polluted regions of PM2.5 in the world. Our results suggest that poor air quality may be responsible for a considerable burden of pregnancy loss in the region. , providing further justification for urgent action to combat dangerous levels of pollution, “said the study’s lead author, Dr. Tao Xue, who is an assistant professor at Peking University in China.

PM2.5 are tiny pollution particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs when inhaled and enter the bloodstream. The particles, composed of dust, dirt, soot or smoke, originate from construction sites, unpaved roads, fields, chimneys or fires and can contain different chemicals. But most of the particles are a mixture of pollutants from emissions from power plants, industries and vehicles.

Exposure to these particles has been linked to pulmonary and cardiac disorders and can impair cognitive and immune functions.

The researchers focused on these tiny particles of pollution. They found that between 2000 and 2016, 7.1% of pregnancy losses in South Asia were attributed to mothers exposed to air pollution that exceeded India’s current air quality standard of 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

For air pollution above the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines, which recommends safer 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air, exposure may have contributed to 29% of pregnancy losses, the study found.

Pregnant women in rural areas or those who were older were at greater risk than young mothers in urban areas, the study found. And air pollution-related pregnancy loss was more common in the plains of northern India and Pakistan.

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To reach their conclusions, the researchers analyzed data from household health surveys from 1998 to 2016 and estimated exposure to pollution during pregnancy with the help of satellites. They then created a model that examined how exposure to pollution increased a woman’s risk of losing pregnancy, taking into account maternal age, temperature and humidity, seasonal variation and long-term trends in pregnancy loss.

The study included 34,197 women who lost their pregnancies, including 27,480 spontaneous abortions and 6,717 stillbirths. Of the pregnancy losses, 77% were from India, 12% from Pakistan and 11% from Bangladesh.

The authors say that poor air quality can increase the burden of pregnancy loss in low- and middle-income countries, so improving pollution levels could reduce abortions and stillbirths and lead to improvements in gender equality.

“We know that losing a pregnancy can have mental, physical and economic consequences for women, including an increased risk of postpartum depressive disorders, infant mortality during subsequent pregnancy and increased pregnancy-related costs, such as the loss of labor” , said co-authored by Dr. Tianjia Guan, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College.

The study warns that more research is needed to establish the causality between pollution and pregnancy loss, as they said the research data is subject to memory bias. The researchers were also unable to distinguish between natural pregnancy loss and abortion. They also note that there was underreporting of natural pregnancy losses due to stigma or for ignoring early miscarriages.

Dirty air is a major risk to environmental health. The WHO says 4.2 million people die each year due to strokes, heart disease, lung cancer, acute and chronic respiratory diseases linked to ambient or outdoor air pollution.

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