Background: Air pollution exposure has been associated with increased blood pressure in adults.
Objective: We examined associations of antenatal exposure to ambient air pollution with newborn systolic blood pressure (SBP).
Methods: We studied 1,131 mother–infant pairs in a Boston, Massachusetts, area pre-birth cohort. We calculated average exposures by trimester and during the 2 to 90 days before birth for temporally resolved fine particulate matter (≤ 2.5 μm; PM2.5), black carbon (BC), nitrogen oxides, nitrogen dioxide, ozone (O3), and carbon monoxide measured at stationary monitoring sites, and for spatiotemporally resolved estimates of PM2.5 and BC at the residence level. We measured SBP at a mean age of 30 ± 18 hr with an automated device. We used mixed-effects models to examine associations between air pollutant exposures and SBP, taking into account measurement circumstances; child’s birth weight; mother’s age, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic position, and third-trimester BP; and time trend. Estimates represent differences in SBP associated with an interquartile range (IQR) increase in each pollutant.
Results: Higher mean PM2.5 and BC exposures during the third trimester were associated with higher SBP (e.g., 1.0 mmHg; 95% CI: 0.1, 1.8 for a 0.32-μg/m3 increase in mean 90-day residential BC). In contrast, O3 was negatively associated with SBP (e.g., –2.3 mmHg; 95% CI: –4.4, –0.2 for a 13.5-ppb increase during the 90 days before birth).
Conclusions: Exposures to PM2.5 and BC in late pregnancy were positively associated with newborn SBP, whereas O3 was negatively associated with SBP. Longitudinal follow-up will enable us to assess the implications of these findings for health during later childhood and adulthood.
1Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 2Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands; 3Obesity Prevention Program, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 4Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel; 5Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 6Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 7Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 8Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Recommended Citation:
Lenie van Rossem,1,2 Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman,et al. Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure and Newborn Blood Pressure[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2015-01-01,Volume 123(Issue 4):353