{"id":3827,"date":"2026-07-19T16:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3827"},"modified":"2026-07-19T16:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:40:13","slug":"new-study-identifies-link-between-air-pollution-and-preterm-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3827","title":{"rendered":"New study identifies link between air pollution and preterm birth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>KEY POINTS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>A new University of Utah study found a correlation between preterm births and air pollution.<\/li>\n<li>Researchers used machine learning to identify patterns between birth and pollutants.<\/li>\n<li>Pregnant women are most affected by air pollution during the late first trimester of pregnancy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A new study from the University of Utah published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology found a link between preterm births and air pollution in Utah. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3825\">Sports on the air: Here\u2019s what games are on TV and radio for the week of July 19-25<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Brenna Kelly, the lead author of the study and an incoming responsible AI postdoctoral fellow at the university\u2019s Scientific Computing &amp; Imaging Institute, along with other researchers, used machine learning to evaluate patterns in air pollution mixtures for birth records between 2013 and 2016 from 44,874 first-time mothers in Utah.<\/p>\n<p>The study, published in May, found that \u201crepeated exposure to combinations of common air pollutants in early pregnancy was associated with nearly three times greater odds of early preterm birth,\u201d according to a press release from the university.<\/p>\n<p>Preterm birth is \u201cdelivery before 34 weeks\u2019 gestation, when infants face higher risks of health complications,\u201d per the release.<\/p>\n<h3>Utah\u2019s unique air <\/h3>\n<p>According to Kelly, the idea that air pollution has effects on preterm birth is \u201ca fairly well-established hypothesis.\u201d What makes the study stand out is its focus on a combination of pollutants, not just individual ones.<\/p>\n<p>At times, Utah has \u201csome of the worst air quality in the world\u201d due to inversions and wildfire smoke, she said. But the data showed most preterm births weren\u2019t related to either of those things.<\/p>\n<p>Preterm births in the state were highly linked to \u201ca really common co-exposure between ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5),\u201d and at a fairly low level, Kelly told Deseret News. The level of those mixtures in the atmosphere associated with preterm births \u201cwould be considered a healthy day\u201d by tools like a weather app. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3824\">Deseret News archives: Salt Lake City over 100,000 population mark in 1924, per census estimates<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>What pregnant women should know<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cExposure to a mixture of O3 and PM2.5 in the late first trimester had the strongest relationship to early preterm birth,\u201d according to the press release. <\/p>\n<p>There are signs people can look for that indicate levels of those pollutants in the air. Kelly said PM2.5 can often be seen, and while O3 is invisible, it peaks \u201cin the late afternoon after the hottest portion of the day.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be ideal if we didn\u2019t put so much pollution into the environment, but the fact is that these exposures exist,\u201c Kelly said. <\/p>\n<p>Spreading awareness of the effects exposure to those mixtures can have on pregnancy can help pregnant women make smart changes. \u201cMaybe your evening walk should become a morning walk to limit your exposure,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p>Kelly also noted that getting outside and being active are healthy practices, and \u201cit\u2019s a shame\u201d to ask pregnant women to modify their behaviors \u201cbecause we expect so much of pregnant people already.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Kelly said more research and better resources are needed, but just knowing the air quality index on weather forecasts is limited and making small behavioral changes are a start to preventing preterm birth. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3822\">Lessons from the Teton Dam flood, 50 years later<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How does air pollution affect pregnant women? What&#8217;s the air quality in Utah? Utah study finds link between preterm births and air pollution<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New study identifies link between air pollution and preterm birth - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3827\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New study identifies link between air pollution and preterm birth - American Movers Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How does air pollution affect pregnant women? 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