Researchers estimated that nearly 16,000 preterm birth across the U.S. in 2010, about 3 percent of the nationwide total of 475,368, were related to exposure to high levels of air pollution. This creates roughly $4.33 billion in additional costs, including $760 million associated with prolonged hospital stays and long-term medication regimens.
Air pollution-related premature births are also associated with $3.57 billion in lost economic productivity due to physical and mental disabilities, according to the repot.
“For policy makers, decisions about regulating air pollution come down to a trade off between the cost of preventing air pollution and the health and economic benefits of limiting air pollution sources,” study author Leonardo Trasande, MD, associate professor in the departments of pediatrics, population health and environmental medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, told CBS News. “Without data documenting the health effects of air pollution on preterm births, there’s only one side to that discussion. So what we did was to quantify the disease burden and economic cost associated with preterm birth that could be traced to air pollution.”
Prior studies have found exposure to high levels of air pollution increases the presence of toxic chemicals in the blood, which can weaken the immune system, induce stress to the placenta and cause preterm births.
The latest analysis found the highest number of preterm births linked to air pollution was in urban counties, primarily in Southern California and the eastern U.S., with the highest rate in the Ohio RiverValley.
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