Acute Effects of Exposure to Ambient Air Pollutants on Preterm Birth in Xiamen City (2015-2018), China

Sijing Huang; Dianchao Lin; Zhixiong Huang; Lin Yang; Xinyu Ding; Qionghua Chen

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c00146

Acute Effects of Exposure to Ambient Air Pollutants on Preterm Birth in Xiamen City (2015-2018), China

ACS Omega. 2020 Mar 26;5(13):7462-7467. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c00146. eCollection 2020 Apr 7.

Authors

Sijing Huang^{1

2}, Dianchao Lin^{1

2}, Zhixiong Huang³, Lin Yang^{1

2}, Xinyu Ding^{1

2}, Qionghua Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361003, China.
² The Key Laboratory of Research and Diagnosis of Gynecological Diseases of Xiamen City, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361003, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361003, China.

Abstract

Backgrounds: Urban energy consumption is one of the important causes of air pollution. The epidemiological risk assessment guided by air pollution is of great significance to the promotion of urban environmental protection. Objectives: The work researched the acute impact of exposure to air pollution on preterm birth (PTB) in Xiamen city from 2015 to 2018. Furthermore, the economic losses were assessed as well. Methods: Association of air pollution and PTB with economic losses were assessed using the generalized additive model. Results: A total of 1991 PTB visits, who are inhabitant in Xiamen, have been investigated. An interquartile range (IQR) (10 μg/m³) increase of PM₁₀, NO₂, and SO₂ in the current day corresponded to the increase of 0.64% [95% CI: -1.22, 2.54%], 0.52% [95% CI: -5.21, 6.61%], and 2.33% [95% CI: -6.41, 11.58%] in daily PTB visits. Especially, PTB visits were significantly related with PM₁₀ and NO₂ in Lag 1 and NO₂ and SO₂ in Lag 2. Furthermore, for multipollutants, an IQR increase in PM_2.5, O₃, and CO, after adjustment with SO₂, was related with 5.04% [95% CI: -5.90, 17.24], 2.49% [95% CI: -6.07, 11.81], and 7.10% [95% CI: -2.79, 18.00] increase of PTB morbidity, respectively. The estimates of the number of excess PTBs attributed to typical pollutants PM₁₀ and SO₂ were ∼2400 and 1200 people, respectively, every year. The highest excess PTBs was estimated to occur as a result of PM₁₀ and SO₂ effects. Conclusions: Although Xiamen has a relatively low level of air pollution, short-term exposure to NO₂, SO₂, and PM₁₀ was linked to the increase of PTB visits.