Air pollution trims fetal growth.Pregnant women who breathe polluted pol·lute tr.v. pol·lut·ed, pol·lut·ing, pol·lutes 1. To make unfit for or harmful to living things, especially by the addition of waste matter. See Synonyms at contaminate. 2. air deliver babies that are slightly smaller than are those born to mothers in cleaner environments, new government research indicates. Air pollution's apparent influence on birth weight--typically little more than an ounce per infant--is probably too small to cause harm in most cases, says epidemiologist Jennifer D. Parker of the National Center for Health Statistics National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. NCHS is the United States' principal health statistics agency. in Hyattsville, Md. Nevertheless, it may undermine health in infants at risk of problems for genetic or other reasons, she says. Parker and her colleagues gathered data on about one-sixth of infants born in California in 2000, excluding those likely to have low birthweights because of premature birth premature birth Birth less than 37 weeks after conception. Infants born as early as 23–24 weeks may survive but many face lifelong disabilities (e.g., cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness). or being born with a twin. The scientists also determined average air concentrations of two kinds of pollutants--carbon monoxide and particulates smaller than 2.5 micrometers across--near where the mothers lived during their pregnancies. Mothers exposed to the highest fine-particulate concentrations gave birth to babies that weighed 35.3 grams less, or about 1 percent, on average than the babies of women living in communities with the cleanest air did. The effects of particulate exposure seemed consistent from one trimester trimester /tri·mes·ter/ (-mes´ter) a period of three months. tri·mes·ter n. A period of three months. Trimester The first third or 13 weeks of pregnancy. to the next, the researchers note in the January Pediatrics. Carbon monoxide carbon monoxide, chemical compound, CO, a colorless, odorless, tasteless, extremely poisonous gas that is less dense than air under ordinary conditions. It is very slightly soluble in water and burns in air with a characteristic blue flame, producing carbon dioxide; exposure, however, had no apparent influence on birth weight of exposed women's babies.--B.H. |
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