Posted on 02/06/2013 7:23:35 PM PST by neverdem
Study of 3 million infants suggests connection between inhaled particles and birth weight.
Pregnant women who have been exposed to higher levels of some types of air pollution are slightly more likely to give birth to underweight babies, a large international study has found. The results are published online today in Environmental Health Perspectives1.
Low birth weight — defined as a newborn baby weighing less than 2.5 kilogrammes — increases the risk of infant mortality and childhood diseases, and has been associated with developmental and health problems later in life, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Previous studies have looked at whether exposure to tiny airborne particles during pregnancy leads to more low-birth-weight babies. Although many studies have found links, others have failed to establish a connection.
“The thorn in the side of many studies of air-pollution exposure and impact on fetal growth has been the variability in study design and in exposure assessment,” says Leonardo Trasande, a children’s environmental-health researcher at New York University in New York city. “This one does a tremendous service by making them very comparable.”
The observational study pooled data from 3 million births at 14 research centres in 9 countries, including the United States, South Korea and Brazil. It focused on two classes of hazardous air pollutants: inhalable particulate matter (PM) with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5) and of less than 10 micrometres (PM10). These particles are produced from the combustion of fossil fuels by industry and transportation and from burning firewood, but can also include particles of dust or sea salt...
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
Hard to prove by the weight of the typical NFL player?
Wow, that sounds like quite a stretch of a hypothesis. How could you model such a system, the slightest perturbation would have to radically change results. I bet the people that came up with this think themselves exceptionally smart.
I bet USA “poor” are twice the weight of any other country’s poor.
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FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
LMAO, these Global Warming freaks will grasp at any straw.
This one is total BS.
Women rejoice!
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