Publication:

Impact of ambient and indoor air pollution on birth weight: a systematic review

The global burden of disease caused by particulate matter exposure has increased significantly. Increasing epidemiological evidence indicates that ambient particulate matter pollution is associated with unfavorable health outcomes, including adverse birth outcomes. In addition to several determinants studies have correlated birth weight with prenatal exposure to particulate matter. This review aims to examine the relationship of pollutants with low birth weight. A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed and Google Scholar electronic databases. A total of 96 studies were reviewed and 18 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In India exposure to ambient PM2.5 is strongly associated with low birth-weight. In Thailand, the entire pregnancy exposure was associated with reduced birth weight both for PM10 and biomass burning. The multiple GAM model have shown a direct and significant relationship between exposure to PM10 and SO2 on low birth weight. A 10 μg/m3 increase in gap-filled satellite-based whole-pregnancy PM2.5 exposures was associated with a change in birth weight. The critical window period for exposure varied between the geographical locations. All of this research is subjected to several limitations regarding the assessment of outcome-exposure. We demonstrated that, maternal exposure to particulate matter during the pregnancy could increase the risk of low birth weight, and the critical window period differed for geographical locations. These findings expand our knowledge of the harmful effects of PM2.5 and biomass burning on new-born weight. Therefore, pregnant women should be informed about the negative consequences of air pollution and avoid exposure to polluted air during pregnancy.