Tanja Pless-Mulloli, who have conducted the largest study of its kind, focused on tiny sooty carbon particles.
The scientists collected data on more than 3 million births at 14 locations in the UK, north and south America, Asia and Australia. Professor Pless-Mulloli teaches us the following :
“As air pollution increases we can see that more babies are smaller at birth, which in turn puts them at risk of poor health later in life.
These microscopic particles, five times smaller than the width of a human hair, are part of the air we breathe every day. What we have shown definitively is that these levels are already having an effect on pregnant mothers.
The particles which are affecting pregnant mothers mainly come from the burning of fossil fuels. In the past the culprit may have been coal fires, now it is primarily vehicle fumes.”
Source: The Guardian