‘Even indoor pollution could lead to miscarriage’

The World Health Organisation WHO estimates that globally air pollution causes over seven million premature deaths each year because of reasons such as ischemic heart disease stroke chronic obstructive pulmonary disease lung cancer and pneumonia However research has found air pollution may be linked to miscarriage as wellA recent literature review by six Indian scientists published in Springer Nature Journal investigated the link between air pollution and miscarriage by analysing 45 studies published between 1982 and 2023 from China the US Africa Italy and Iran and a few from Sweden South Asia Finland Brazil India Turkey Russia and Mongolia The studies looked at both shortterm and longterm exposure to single and multiple pollutants ldquoConsidering the World Health Organisation definition which defines spontaneous abortion or miscarriage as the termination of pregnancy by the expulsion of an embryo weighing less than 500 grams before 22 weeks of gestation our study highlighted the most consistent association of spontaneous abortion with particulate mattermdashPM 25 and PM 10 followed by nitrogen dioxide sulfur dioxide and ozone during the first trimester of pregnancy ie gestation periodrdquo says Priyadharshini Babu the lead researcher of the study who worked with Vaishali Verma from the Department of Biotechnology at Bennett University Swapna Sarika Khadanga from the Centre for Biotechnology Siksha lsquoOrsquo Anusandhan Shailendra Kumar Yadav from Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University Dudam Bharath Kumar Department of Civil Engineering Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology and Ayushi Gupta of Knowledge Resource Centre Azim Premji UniversityWhat this means is thatexposure to pollutants during the first trimester of pregnancy could affect the health of the foetus While the study was not aimed at finding a correlation and causation effect it draws attention to the possible impacts of pollutants on developing foetuses Exposure to pollutants can occur through many sourcesmdashambient air pollution working in occupations that expose you to pollutants traffic open fires and desert dust By and large however traffic pollution exhibited the most harmful impact which may pose an issue for women in metro cities like Delhi Mumbai and BengaluruldquoWe scrutinized 45 research papers of which 24 emphasized the effects of ambient air pollution in contrast only two studies explored trafficrelated air pollution TRAP Despite the limited number TRAP studies showed consistent adverse impacts on pregnancy outcomesrdquo says Babu who is an assistant professor at Tamil Nadursquos Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Management Vellore Institute of TechnologyIt also highlighted the fact that certain demographics of the population are particularly vulnerable to air pollution ldquoCertain age groups including children the elderly and pregnant women have unique vulnerabilities and predispositions to the effects of air pollution due to several factorsrdquo Babu explains ldquoPregnant women undergo physiological changes associated with pregnancy such as alterations in the endocrine system increased inhalation rates and improved cardiac outputs that make them susceptible to air pollutionrdquo The reason why they are vulnerable is because of two factors physiological factors and exposure to pollutantsPhysiologically because young children still have developing respiratory immune and metabolic systems they are at higher riskmdashand they spend more time in open spaces ldquoThey have faster breathing rates and smaller lung capacities than adults potentially inhaling more pollutants per unit of body weightrdquo Babu says Older people are at risk because of underlying health conditionsThe study concluded that pregnant women spend more time at home than at work so it is possible that indoor sources of air pollution might pose a risk as well More awareness is needed in this area the researchers note making pregnant women aware of the kinds of pollution that can have an impact so that they can take preventive steps to avoid it