The continued exposure to air contaminated by ozone or fine particles (PM10 and PM2.5) from traffic may increase up to 13% the risk of spontaneous abortion, as revealed by the analysis of data from a study conducted by the Institutes National Health of the United States, which followed 501 couples living in Michigan and Texas, between 2005 and 2009.
During this period, 343 couples conceived a child, but 98 of the women (28%) suffered an abortion in the first 18 weeks of pregnancy . The researchers evaluated the exposure of these people to air pollution according to the levels of contamination detected in their places of residence, in order to determine whether breathing contaminated air could have affected the development of pregnancy.
The results of the research, published in Fertility and Sterility , showed that while exposure to ozone was related to a 12% increase in the risk of losing pregnancy, breathing air contaminated by fine airborne particles increased that risk by 13% , values that were maintained after adjusting for other factors that may influence the development and good health of the pregnancy such as age, cultural and economic level, race, weight, consumption of caffeine and vitamin supplements or fertility.
Air pollution harms the health of pregnancyIn the opinion of the researchers, nine of the 98 abortions could have been avoided in the event that the air pollution levels to which the pregnant women were exposed would have been lower or they would have breathed clean air, although the study has not established a relationship cause between air pollution and the increased risk of losing the baby, and did not show that exposure to smog will cause abortion, but only that there was an association.
Pauline Mendola, researcher at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Eunice Kennedy Shriver of the NIH, and lead author of this work, explained that air pollution causes inflammation and oxidative stress , which could harm pregnancy in several ways; for example, interfering with the implantation of the fertilized ovum in the uterus, hindering the correct development of the fetus, or causing problems in the placenta.
Mendola has also stated that she intends to verify these findings in larger population groups, as well as to analyze in depth the biological ways in which air pollution could negatively affect pregnancy. Meanwhile, the expert advises pregnant women that when there are alerts about poor air quality , adopt measures to protect themselves similar to those recommended to people suffering from asthma, or any other disease of the respiratory system.
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