Air Pollution in China Linked to Lower Birth Weights

Air pollution in China is linked to lower birth weights, as evidenced by a new study published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

In response to international scrutiny preceding the 2008 Olympic games, the Chinese government restricted automobile use, closed factories and imposed a moratorium on construction projects in an effort to reduce air pollution. University of Rochester researchers followed 80,000 women who were pregnant in Beijing in 2008 to track fetal growth and development.

The good news: the presence of certain air pollutants in Beijing decreased up to 60% during the Olympics, and babies born in 2008 were an average of 8 ounces heavier than those born in 2007.

The bad news: the restrictions were only temporary, and have since been rescinded. The birth weight of babies born in 2009 dropped back down to 2007 levels as air pollution rebounded.

Low birth weight is associated with a variety of conditions; babies born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces are at a higher risk of inhibited growth and cognitive development than babies born at a healthy weight.

Researchers believe that fetuses are especially vulnerable to air pollution during the later stages of pregnancy, a period of development for the central nervous, cardiovascular, and skeletal systems.

"While Beijing's pollution is particularly noteworthy, many of the world's other cities face similar air quality problems," said study co-author Dr. Junfeng Zhang. "This study shows that pollution controls i even short-term ones i can have positive public health benefits."

Exposure to high levels of pollution can have a significant impact on fetal growth and development, that is the conclusion of research appearing today in the journalEnvironmental Health Perspectives.   The study found women who were pregnant during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when pollution levels were reduced by the Chinese government, gave birth to children with higher birth weights compared to those who were pregnant before and after the games. 

“The results of this study demonstrate a clear association between changes in air pollutant concentrations and birth weight,” said David Q. Rich, Sc.D., M.P.H., an epidemiologist with the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Departments of Public Health Sciences and Environmental Medicine and lead author of the study. “These findings not only illustrate one of the many significant health consequences of pollution, but also demonstrate that this phenomenon can be reversed.” 

In the months leading up to and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics (August 8-24) and Paralympics (September 6-16), the Chinese government launched a series of aggressive measures to improve the city’s chronic and notoriously poor air quality. These measures included an aggressive program to curtail pollution by implementing strict restrictions on automobile and truck use, closing factories, halting construction projects, and seeding clouds to induce rainfall. 

These controls – which were subsequently relaxed upon completion of the games – produced a significant decrease in the concentrations of particulate and gaseous air pollution for a 6-7 week period during the Olympic games, including a 60 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide, a 48 percent reduction in carbon monoxide, a 43 percent reduction in nitrogen dioxide, and a reduction in particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter.  

These measures created a unique “natural experiment” for scientists to study the impact of pollution on human health. A prior study by this group, which was also conducted in concurrence with the Beijing Olympics, demonstrated that pollutions levels were linked to physiological changes that increase risk for cardiovascular disease, and that these same air pollution reductions resulted in improvements in several risk factors.

The researchers compiled information from 83,672 term births (37 to 42 weeks gestational age at birth) to mothers in four urban districts in Beijing. They compared birth weights for mothers whose eighth month of pregnancy occurred during the 2008 Olympics/Paralympics with those whose eighth month of pregnancy occurred at the same time of year in the years before (2007) and after (2009) the games when pollution levels were at their normally higher levels. They found that the babies born in 2008 were on average 23 grams larger than those in 2007 and 2009. 

Late pregnancy is a particularly important period of fetal growth, as during this time the fetus experiences the greatest amount of physical growth, and the development of the central nervous, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal systems accelerates. The study suggests that pollution may be interfering with this period of development.

While the biological mechanism by which exposure to pollution causes lower birth weights are not fully understood, the scientists speculate that several factors could play a role, including maternal inflammation, altered placental function, and reduced nutrient delivery to the fetus, which may impede fetal growth.

“While Beijing’s pollution is particularly noteworthy, many of the world’s other cities face similar air quality problems,” said Junfeng Zhang, Ph.D., with Duke Global Health Institute and Duke Kunshan University and a co-author of the study. “This study shows that pollution controls – even short-term ones – can have positive public health benefits.”

Addition authors include Sally Thurston, Timothy Stevens, Cathleen Kane, and Vanessa Assibey-Mensah with URMC, Kaibo Liu and Ying Pan with the Capital Medical University in Beijing, Jinliang Zhang and Xiaoli Duan with the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences in Beijing, Barry Weinberger and Pamela Ohman-Strickland with Rutgers University, Tracey Woodruff with the University of California, San Francisco, and Junfeng Zhang with Duke University.   The study was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.