Pollution and neonatal outcomes
- Maayan Yitshak-Sade with other colleagues (Yitshak-Sade et al, 2016) summarized a cohort study where we enrolled 1823 pregnant women of Bedouin-Arab origin upon their arrival at Soroka hospital for delivery during 2011–April The subset of 959 women with verified residence location was analyzed here. The main exposures were temperature, ambient pollution as measured by nearby monitoring stations (NO2, SO2, CO, Ozone and Particulate Matter <2.5 μ and 10 μ in diameter) and hazardous household factors like heating by open fire or nearby waste site, as reported by women during an interview.
Similarly to our previous findings, higher temperature measured in the 3rd trimester was negatively associated with birth weight (where 1 IQR corresponded to 0.002 gr decrease in weight). Ozone, but none of other ambient pollutants, was associated with birth weight decrease (1 IQR associated with a decrease of 0.2 gr in birth weight). With that been said, the most substantial factor related to birth weight was in fact, a self-report of a waste site in the house surroundings was associated with a decrease of 117.27 gr in birth weight.
- In the project led by Daniela Landau (Landau et al, 2015) we analyzed a subset of 1024 enrolled in the cohort described previously but focused on the effect of ambient pollution and congenital We found that NO2 emissions had an independent impact on minor malformations, whereas major malformations were more frequent within newborns exposed to hazardous factors in their household.
Pollution and pediatric outcomes
- In a cohort of 57,331 deliveries between 2004-2012 in Soroka hospital, our team led by Sharon Goshen (Goshen et al, 2020) investigated the effect of ambient pollutants as estimated by a satellite-based model during gestation on Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in offspring by their first birthday. Based on our findings, the intrauterine exposure to high levels of PM2.5 (> 24 μg/m3) in the first and second trimesters was found to be adversely associated with LRTIs in the Bedouin- Arab population (1st trimester, RR = 1.31; 2nd trimester: RR = 1.34). Important to note, that similar to other studies, the subgroup of Bedouin-Arab population was found more susceptible to ambient exposure, as compared the Jewish population.