Cleaner Beijing led to bigger babies
Print Edition
WOMEN in Beijing who were in the final stages of pregnancy during the 2008 Olympics — when air pollution was strictly controlled — gave birth to heavier babies than in years when the smog was more of a problem, according to the latest research results.
The study, led by epidemiologist David Rich of the University of Rochester Medical Center and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that babies born to Beijing mothers in their eighth month of pregnancy during the Olympics were on average 23 grams heavier than those born a year earlier or a year later.
It found no significant association for mothers in their first to seventh months.
Previous studies have linked pollution to birth weight, but did not pinpoint at what stage of pregnancy the association is greatest.
The researchers in China and the United States used records of more than 83,000 full-term births to mothers in Beijing from 2007 to 2009.
Beijing halted construction, shut factories and cut the numbers of vehicles allowed on the roads for 47 days for the games, providing the basis for a natural experiment on the effects of pollution.
The authors suggested that pollution controls — even those that were short-lived — can have positive health benefits.
“These findings not only illustrate one of the many significant health consequences of pollution, but also demonstrate that this phenomenon can be reversed,” Rich said in a statement.
Professor Chen Yuyu of the Applied Economics Department at Peking University, who was not involved in the birth study, said the results were interesting but, in his view, not conclusive because there could have been other unobserved factors during the Olympics that had contributed to the results.
Chen, who was the co-author of a 2013 report that linked heavy pollution from coal burning to shorter lives in northern China, said that more research was needed to “improve our understanding of pollution’s impact on people’s health.”
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