Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Birth Weight: The Roles of Noise, Placental Function, Green Space, Physical Activity, and Socioeconomic Status (FRONTIER)

This report, available for downloading below, presents a study led by co-principal investigators Payam Dadvand and Jordi Sunyer at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). Dadvand, Sunyer, and colleagues examined the effects of prenatal exposure to traffic-related air pollution on fetal growth and placental function in a newly established cohort of 1,080 women living in Barcelona, Spain.

Key takeaways:

• The study found that increased exposure to all pollutants, except zinc, was associated with lower birth weight and increased odds of the infant being considered small for its gestation age. Changes in placental function suggest that fine particle exposure might affect fetal growth by increasing resistance to blood flow between the fetus and placenta.
• The most vulnerable periods of exposure were during the late first to early second trimesters and the late third trimester of pregnancy. The results confirm other research on birth outcomes and stress the importance of reducing air pollution exposures of pregnant women.