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Air pollution during pregnancy and lung function in newborns: a birth cohort study

¹ Division of Respiratory Medicine, Dept of Paediatrics, Inselspital and University of Bern, and ² Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

CORRESPONDENCE: P. Latzin, Division of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine University Children's Hospital of Bern, Inselspital, 3010 Bern, Switzerland. Fax: 41 316324807. E-mail: philipp.latzin{at}insel.ch

Keywords: Air pollution, exhaled nitric oxide, infant, lung function, lung growth

Received: June 4, 2008
Accepted October 21, 2008

Post-natal exposure to air pollution is associated with diminished lung growth during school age. The current authors aimed to determine whether pre-natal exposure to air pollution is associated with lung function changes in the newborn.

In a prospective birth cohort of 241 healthy term-born neonates, tidal breathing, lung volume, ventilation inhomogeneity and exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) were measured during unsedated sleep at age 5 weeks. Maternal exposure to particles with a 50% cut-off aerodynamic diameter of 10 µm (PM₁₀), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and ozone (O₃), and distance to major roads were estimated during pregnancy. The association between these exposures and lung function was assessed using linear regression.

Minute ventilation was higher in infants with higher pre-natal PM₁₀ exposure (24.9 mL·min^–1 per µg·m^–3 PM₁₀). The eNO was increased in infants with higher pre-natal NO₂ exposure (0.98 ppb per µg·m^–3 NO₂). Post-natal exposure to air pollution did not modify these findings. No association was found for pre-natal exposure to O₃ and lung function parameters.

The present results suggest that pre-natal exposure to air pollution might be associated with higher respiratory need and airway inflammation in newborns. Such alterations during early lung development may be important regarding long-term respiratory morbidity.

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