Urban Air Pollution Linked to Birth Defects

A study has provided the first evidence that pregnant women exposed to increased levels of ozone and carbon monoxide have an elevated risk of having a child with heart defects.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health (UCLA, USA) and the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program (CBDMP). The findings were published in the January 1, 2002, issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The researchers analyzed information on more than 9,000 babies born from 1987 to 1993 in four California counties. They compared air quality near the homes of children born with birth defects to air quality in the neighborhoods of children born healthy, using measurements made regularly at 30 locations by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The results showed that pregnant women exposed to increased levels of ozone and carbon monoxide in the second month of pregnancy, when the heart and other organs begin developing, had an elevated risk of having a child with conotruncal heart defects, pulmonary artery/valve defects, and aortic artery/valve defects. This group of defects was shown to occur 1.76 times per 1,000 births, resulting in 935 cases in California each year. Many of these babies face open-heart surgery before the age of one. Moreover, the risk of having a child with these defects tripled for those women living in areas with the highest levels of the two pollutants in comparison with women living in areas with the cleanest air. Although there has been a significant decrease in US urban air pollution, the study suggests there may be pollution problems and health risks not yet understood.

"These findings show that there are more health problems caused by air pollution than solely asthma and other respiratory illnesses,” said Beate Ritz, a UCLA epidemiologist who led the study.




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