A study on the risks induced by indoor and outdoor pollution was published this Tuesday in the scientific journal Plos Medicine, report The Guardian. The meta-analysis concludes that nearly six million preterm births occur worldwide each year due to pollution.
Three million births to underweight (underweight) babies are also attributable to poor air quality, researchers said. The team of scientists led by Rakesh Ghosh, an epidemiologist at the University of California, compiled the results of 108 research papers from 204 countries to arrive at these conclusions.
Indoor pollution mainly involved
The study is notably the first to take into account both the risks induced by indoor pollution and by outdoor pollution, notes Slate. Indoor pollution, caused in particular by wood or charcoal stoves still widely used in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, account for two-thirds of total pollution on pregnancies in 2019.
Thus, “to minimize exposure to household pollution […] should be part of the messages conveyed during prenatal care, ”said Rakesh Ghosh. Reducing air pollution in these two geographic areas could reduce the risk of premature births and underweight babies by 78%, according to the study.
Note that underweight is one of the main causes of the 15 million newborn deaths each year worldwide. In 2019, 500,000 babies would have died from the consequences of air pollution.