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Finnish study shows prenatal exposure to air pollution increases risk of stillbirth

Xinhua, May 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

A latest systematic review and meta-analysis of previous studies showed that exposure to air pollution during pregnancy increases the risk of stillbirth.

The study was conducted by the Center for Environmental and Respiratory Health Research of the University of Oulu, according to a press release on Thursday.

The review, published on the latest issue of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine, said the risk rises particularly in the last 12 weeks of pregnancy.

According to the World Health Organization, there were 2.6 million stillbirths in the world in 2015, with 7,200 deaths every day.

Previous researches about the effects of air pollution on stillbirth had produced inconsistent conclusions, said the press release.

By summarizing and analyzing the body of evidence with a large amount of new studies, the Finnish researchers now provided suggestive evidence that air pollution is a major risk factor for stillbirth.

Concretely, a 4 µg/m3 increase in PM 2.5, a 10 ppb increase in NO2 and a 3 ppb increase in SO2 are associated with a 2.1 percent, a 6.6 percent and a 2.2 percent increased risk of stillbirth respectively.

The researchers, therefore, suggested that pregnant women should be aware of the potential harmful effects of air pollution, and called for reduction of the risk of air pollution by improving fuel quality, as well as controlling vehicular and industrial waste emissions. Endit