Up to six million premature births a year are apparently due to bad air.
This is shown by a study by the University of California in San Francisco. The researchers combined the results of several studies and calculated a global total exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution calculated.
Above all, the bad indoor air was responsible for two thirds of the pollution. The problem is particularly great in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where a lot of indoor cooking is done with coal or wood. The researchers therefore recommend addressing the problem in prenatal care. But there is also bad outside air: in South and East Asia, it is repeatedly polluted by forest fires, slash and burn or dust storms.
The researchers say: The fight against air pollution there and in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to a decrease in the number of premature births and babies who are underweight by almost 80 percent – worldwide.
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