Scientists have known for years that smog plays havoc with residents' health. Asthma, blood pressure and a host of cardiovascular diseases all get worse in people exposed to high levels of air pollution.
Now Jun Wu of the University of California, Irvine and a team of researchers have shown that the effects are amplified for pregnant women living within three kilometers (1.9 miles) of a major roadway.
Among the most polluted parts of the country, the Port of Long Beach and southern Los Angeles County roadways are choked with traffic on a daily basis.
A comparison of medical records from 81,186 single child births to air pollution levels in the area revealed that high pollution exposure raised the risk of a severely premature birth by 128 percent.
Moms-to-be were also between 33 and 42 percent more likely to develop preeclampsia, an affliction characterized by high blood pressure that often forces doctors to induce premature birth in order to save mothers' lives.
The team's study is in due to be published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives."
Scary!
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- DeliaTheArtist
- added this
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No way. LA traffic makes everyone late '-)
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I don't live in a major city, but I do live near a highway and my street is pretty busy. I developed preeclampsia and had to be induced at 33 weeks. There's no way to know what caused it, but I'm sure the local pollution didn't help.
To make matters worse, there is a proposed biomass plant that has just been awarded special permits to build in my town! I don't know what the people on the zoning board are smoking, but there will be plenty more toxic stuff in the air we breathe if it is built. I wonder how many more preemies will be born?
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Not that this has anything to do with LA (I live in New England), but my ex-wife had preeclampsia and my daughter was born at 24 weeks, weighing 1lb, 2oz. That was 12 years ago.
Fortunately my daughter didn't have anything seriously wrong other than her size and she came home at 3 months old weighing 3 pounds. They gave her some sort of steroid to help develop her lungs while she was still in the womb, to prepare in case an early delivery was necessary. She had a hole in her heart, but it closed on its own. She's perfectly healthy.
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- noxidereus
- 4 months ago
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i don't think air pollution is the answer. i am sure sao paulo, beijing, and a host of other places in india and elsewhere are worse. i lived 5 months in iquitos peru (pop: 400,000) where you not only have terrible air pollution but noise pollution that trumps it as well.
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yes, but I'm sure it's not the only cause.
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the sky is brown on certain days it is purple. When i lived there i could not wait to get out what makes a new baby any different they just want out of LA
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- sickinjersey
- 4 months ago
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if not birth..it would be premature death
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- GodsnLiberals
- 4 months ago
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It's weird, that with an affliction,... we're apt to blame one and only one culprit!??! Our lives are full of poisons and foreign objects,... so isn't it hard to accuse only one cause?!!?
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city living is an unnatural environment for humans. it will be a long time before we learn how best to live. i remember l.a. in the 60's, smog alerts, gas masks and the elderly dropping like flies. things are better despite the increased population and ther'e getting better still. we are on the verge of solving air polution with; new advancements in hybrid cars, better batteries and breakthroughs in solar cells. if you want to help, drive less.
