Pregnant Women Living Near Airports At Higher Risk Of Giving Birth Prematurely, Study Shows

Exposure to high levels of air pollution coming from airplane exhaust may pose a grave danger to pregnant women, putting them at risk of delivering prematurely, a new study says.

The study, published in the Environmental Health Perspectives, involved women living within nine miles from the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Led by Dr. Beate Ritz, a professor in the department of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, the team analyzed more than 174,186 records of birth between 2008 and 2016. The study showed that these women are 14% more likely to deliver prematurely as compared to women who have less exposure to such pollution.

The nine-mile radius that researchers looked into was the area where people were exposed to high levels of aircraft-origin ultrafine particles (UFPs). In this area, about two million people were residing, Sam Wing from the Fielding School of Public Health of UCLA, who was a co-author of the study, said in a news release.

The team evaluated not just the pollution coming from jet exhausts, but other factors like traffic, airport noise and the race, age, and education of the mothers. After factoring all variables, the researchers found that pregnant women living in areas where ultrafine particle concentration was high also had a higher risk of preterm births. Those who were exposed to low levels of pollution did not show the same risk.

Ritz, in a UCLA news release, said the data suggests pollution coming jet exhaust contributed to premature births. She added that it was above and beyond the primary source of air pollution in the area, which was traffic.

Dr. Mitchell Kramer, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Huntington Hospital in New York, said the results of the UCLA study were not surprising at all. He noted that there were previous studies that looked at fetal illnesses in areas known for high air pollution levels.

Kramer added that the study must be a wake-up call for the airline industry.