More premature babies are born to mothers exposed to high levels of air pollution, UC Irvine researchers say in a new study based in part on data gathered in Orange County.

Pregnant women who live in polluted areas also are at greater risk for preeclampsia, a condition involving high blood pressure that is dangerous for both the mother and her fetus, according to the study published this week in the journal, “Environmental Health Perspectives.”

“You get concerned maybe if you live close to a freeway, or if you live next to a major arterial with busy traffic,” said Jun Wu, right, a UC Irvine assistant professor in the program in public health and epidemiology and the study’s lead author.

Wu and the other researchers at UCI and UCLA examined more than 81,000 records of single babies born between 1997 and 2006 in four hospitals, one in Long Beach and three in Orange County. They matched them to pollution estimates for the women’s home addresses using a computer model of how pollution disperses, considering only those pollutants associated with roadway auto exhaust.

They found that for very premature births — those occurring at fewer than 30 weeks — the risk goes up 128 percent when mothers are exposed to high levels of nitrogen oxides.

Exposure to high levels of nitrogen oxides and fine particle pollution increased the risk for preeclampsia by as much as 42 percent, the study showed.

When exposure to pollution is averaged over an entire pregnancy, the risk for preeclampsia increases 11 percent for nitrogen oxides.

While other studies have shown an association between air pollution and premature birth, Wu said she was struck by the strong association for very premature births.

The researchers examined records from Anaheim Memorial, Orange Coast Memorial in Fountain Valley, and Saddleback Memorial in Laguna Hills, as well as Long Beach Memorial.

(Photo courtesy UC Irvine.)

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