Air pollution linked to low birthweight in Europe

By Miriam Stix NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Women exposed to even low levels of urban air pollution during pregnancy may be at heightened risk of having a low-birthweight baby, according to a review of evidence from Europe. Based on data for more than 74,000 women in 12 European countries over a 15-year period, researchers say that if pollution levels were lowered to limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO), 22 percent of cases of low birthweight would be avoided. “This is similar to the number of cases that would be prevented by cessation of maternal smoking during pregnancy in this European population,” said lead author Dr. Marie Pedersen from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, Spain. Pedersen’s team looked at 14 studies of pregnant women who had a child at full term between 1994 and 2011.