Air pollution can lead to preterm
birth in asthmatic mothers
With the soaring pollution
levels in the Capital, IMA urges citizens to do their bit to reduce air
pollution
New
Delhi, March 3, 2016: The ill effects of air pollution on
respiratory health are well-known. Now, a study from the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) says that when pregnant women with asthma are exposed to high
levels of certain traffic-related air pollutants, they face a greater risk of
preterm birth.
The increased risk is associated with both ongoing and short-term exposure to nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide particularly when women were exposed to those pollutants just before conception and in early pregnancy.
An increase of 30 parts per billion in nitrogen oxide exposure in the three months prior to pregnancy increased preterm birth risk by nearly 30 percent for women with asthma, compared to 8 percent for women without asthma. Greater carbon monoxide exposure during the same period raised preterm birth risk by 12 percent for asthmatic women, but had no effect on preterm birth risk for non-asthmatics. The last six weeks of pregnancy was another critical window for women with asthma. Exposure to high levels of particulate matter — very small particles of substances like acids, metals, and dust in the air — also was associated with higher preterm birth risk.
The study was published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Sharing
details, Dr SS Agarwal, National
President IMA & Padma Shri Awardee Dr KK Aggarwal, President HCFI and
Honorary Secretary General IMA said, “People
with asthma who are concerned about exposures to air pollution may want to
limit their outdoor activity during periods when the air quality is forecast to
be unhealthy for sensitive groups. It is the responsibility of each and every
citizen to work towards the reduction of environmental pollution given its
serious effects on one’s overall health and well being. If each one of us takes
simple environmental friendly steps such as carpooling, discouraging the use of
fire-crackers, planting more trees around our houses, the pollution levels can
be brought down and several diseases prevented.”
Other Harmful Effects of Air Pollution:
1. Air pollution affects respiratory system causing breathing
difficulties and diseases such as bronchitis, asthma, lung cancer, tuberculosis
and pneumonia.
2. Air Pollution affects the central nervous system causing carbon
monoxide poisoning. CO has more affinity for hemoglobin than oxygen and thus
forms a stable compound carboxy haemoglobin (COHb), which is poisonous and
causes suffocation and death.
3. Air pollution causes depletion of ozone layer due to which
ultraviolet radiations can reach the earth and cause skin cancer, damage to
eyes and immune system.
4. It causes acid rain, which damages crop plants, trees, buildings,
monuments, statues and metal structures and also makes the soil acidic.
5. It causes greenhouse effect or global warming which leads to
excessive heating of earth's atmosphere, further leading to weather variability
and rise in sea level. The increased temperature may cause melting of ice caps
and glaciers, resulting in floods.
6. Air pollution from certain metals, pesticides and fungicides
causes serious ailments.
·
Lead pollution causes anemia, brain
damage, convulsions and death.
·
Certain metals cause problem in
kidney, liver, circulatory system and nervous system.
·
Fungicides cause nerve damage and
death.
·
Pesticides like DDT (Dichloro
diphenyl trichloroethane) which are toxic enter into our food chain and gets
accumulated in the body causing kidney disorders and problems of brain and
circulatory system.
