Mothers' exposure to air pollution associated with low-birth-weight babies
Since babies with low birth weight often have poor health outcomes, there is considerable interest in identifying the factors that affect birth weight. Air pollution has been identified as one possible factor, however several studies have produced conflicting results and there is scarce data from the Middle East region. A recent study, initiated by Professor Hagai Levine of the Hebrew University (HU)-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health, showed unequivocally that air pollution is associated with low-birth-weight babies. Using personal, anonymized data and detailed high-resolution pollutant data enabled the Hebrew U. team to produce more accurate statistical analyses. Indeed, Levine maintains, "it is now clear that governments need to set up the infrastructure to integrate environmental and health data at the personal level."
This study, led by Wiessam Abu Ahmad, a doctoral student of Levine and Prof. Ronit Nirel at HU's Department of Statistics and Data Science, looked at the link between an air pollutant known as PM2.5 and the birth weight of 380,000 singleton babies born to mothers all over in Israel during the years 2004-2015. Their findings were published this week in the prestigious journal Environmental Research.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.112974
Hebrew University,Professor Hagai Levine,Environmental Research,Wiessam Abu Ahmad,air quality,pollutants,smog,life sciences,
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