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Photo from 2019: Women in Australia take to the streets against the consequences of climate change for their babies
Photo: Jenny Evans/Getty Images
It doesn't matter whether the research is in the USA, Denmark, Israel or Australia - in essence, everyone observes the same effect: global warming has a poisonous effect on small children;
and that already in the earliest phase.
"From inception, from conception, through early childhood, through adolescence, we begin to see significant health implications of climate hazards," said Gregory Wellenius, who shared the results of the various studies with Amelia Wesselink in a special issue of the journal "Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemology," now the Guardian, which reports on the investigation.
Wellenius and Wesselink conduct their own research at the University School of Public Health at Boston University in the United States.
Rising temperatures – higher risk of obesity
In their own study, the US researchers found, among other things, that rising temperatures are associated with faster weight gain in babies, which also increases the risk of later obesity.
Rising temperatures are also linked to premature births, which can have lifelong health consequences;
also with a higher hospitalization rate for young children.
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Scientists from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem were also able to demonstrate a connection between heat and rapid weight gain in the first year of life.
They analyzed 200,000 births and found that babies who were exposed to the highest temperatures on average had an average five percent higher risk of gaining weight faster.
The likelihood of complications after childbirth is significantly increased
A California study found that the risk of the birth defect gastroschisis doubles if the mother was exposed to wildfires in the month before conception.
Gastroschisis is a developmental disorder of the anterior abdominal wall in which the baby's intestines and sometimes other organs protrude from the body through a small hole.
In most cases, the malformation can be treated with surgery.
The scientists studied two million births, 40 percent of them to mothers living within 15 miles (about 24 kilometers) of a forest fire and the associated air pollution.
The researchers found that mothers who lived near wildfires during their first trimester had a 28 percent increased risk of having a birth defect.
It is true that fetal gastroschisis is rare - there are about 2000 cases per year in the USA.
However, the frequency is increasing.
"As such, a thorough understanding of the adverse health consequences of wildfires is critical," Bo Young Park, who co-edited the California State University study, told the Guardian.
Air pollution increases risk of premature birth
Australian studies also examined the link between high temperatures and preterm birth.
The first study surveyed nearly one million pregnant women in New South Wales, Australia, from 2005 to 2014, three percent of whom gave birth before the 37th week of pregnancy.
Among other things, the research team found that those who were in the hottest places in the state in the week before giving birth had a 16 percent higher risk of having a preterm birth.
Earlier studies had shown a similar effect in the warmer subtropical city of Brisbane, writes the Guardian.
"The risk of preterm birth is likely to increase with expected rises in global temperatures and heat waves - this is a potentially serious problem," said Edward Jegasothy of the University of Sydney.
The new research supports a 2020 review of 68 studies involving 34 million births that linked heat and air pollution to a higher risk of preterm birth, low birth weight and stillbirth. Physician Bruce Bekkar, one of the authors of the study at the time, said: "We have generations that are already born weak."
Higher temperatures on Earth also led to more young children being admitted to New York City's emergency rooms, another American study shows.
The scientists examined 2.5 million admissions over a period of eight years and found that a seven degree increase in maximum temperature led to a 2.4 percent increase in admissions for children under the age of five.
Young children lose proportionately more fluid than adults, and their ability to regulate body temperature is not as mature, the researchers said.
»Current standards may not be sufficient«
A study from Denmark looked at the effects of air pollution on 10,000 couples trying to conceive naturally.
It found that the increase in air pollution during a menstrual cycle leads to a decrease in conception rates of about 8 percent.
A recent study in China showed similar results.
However, the average pollution was more than five times higher than in the Danish study.
"Air pollution [in Denmark] was low and almost entirely at levels considered safe by the European Union," said Wesselink, the Boston-based researcher.
"Current norms may not be sufficient to protect against adverse effects on reproductive health."
Her colleague Wellenius said that the research also makes it clear that those who are already worse off in society are particularly affected by the effects of climate change.
This raises the question of equal opportunities and justice in health, the researcher summed up.
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