Pregnant women living in areas of high air pollution are more likely to have premature babies. In an interview with Dutch daily AD, researcher Edith van den Hooven says “there is a 40 percent greater chance of babies being born earlier than 37 weeks”.

Even when not premature, the babies are smaller. A project carried out by the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam followed 7,000 pregnant women in the city between 2011 and 2006 and concluded that “babies in heavily polluted areas were on average 30 to 40 grams lighter than babies in cleaner districts. “

(imm)

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