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Air pollution, heat exposure and birth outcomes

A mother holds her baby in her arms as the baby walks in shallow river water.

A systematic review evaluating air pollution and heat exposure and associations with preterm birth, low birth weight and stillbirth in the United States found that mothers with asthma and Black mothers were at an increased risk for adverse birth outcomes when exposed to PM2.5 and ozone. A total of 68 articles from 2017 – April 2019, which studied more than 32 million births, were included in the review.