Vehicular population explosion: air pollution exposure during pregnancy and low birth weight

Indian cities are highly polluted, there are very few Indian studies which try to correlate air pollution to low birth weight. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between Nitrogen oxides (NOx), Particulate matter (PM 10) and Low Birth weight in a polluted coastal city of India. Information about low birth weight (< 2.5 kg) for both the sexes and air pollution data mainly Nitrogen oxides and Particulate matter were collected. Increase in number of registered vehicles in Chennai was also investigated. We compared our study result with other studies conducted in rural and semi-urban parts of Tamilnadu on Low birth weight. PM 10 levels was much higher than WHO prescribed limit since the year 2000. Low birth weight rate is high in Chennai when compared to other parts of Tamilnadu. However there is a significant decrease in Low birth weight rate during the study period of 14 years. A marginal increase in average weight at birth was also noted. When we compare our low birth weight rate with the same in a rural and semi-urban population of Tamilnadu, we see that LBWrate in Chennai is almost two to three times higher. Though a cause and effect relationship cannot be established from this observation we may safely conclude that a well designed study is needed to confirm or refute this finding.