"Global heating linked to early birth and damage to babies’ health, scientists find"
The Guardian quoted Dr. Lara Cushing about research that found the risk of any premature birth was 15% higher the day after a day of excessive heat.
![Pregnant belly](https://ph.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/styles/hero/public/2022-09/2022.01.15_Cushing_Guardian_Masthead.png?itok=nBdGDj6v)
The climate crisis is damaging the health of foetuses, babies and infants across the world, six new studies have found.
Scientists discovered increased heat was linked to fast weight gain in babies, which increases the risk of obesity in later life. Higher temperatures were also linked to premature birth, which can have lifelong health effects, and to increased hospital admissions of young children.
Other studies found exposure to smoke from wildfires doubled the risk of a severe birth defects, while reduced fertility was linked to air pollution from fossil fuel burning, even at low levels. The studies, published in a special issue of the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, spanned the globe from the US to Denmark, Israel and Australia.
Faculty Referenced by this Article
![Dr. Candace Tsai](https://ph.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-12/___Candace%20Tsai-sq.jpg?itok=8tcJnDo3)
Associate Professor for Industrial Hygiene and Environmental Health Sciences
![Dr. Shane Que Hee](https://ph.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-12/___Shane%20Que%20Hee_-4-sq.jpg?itok=yOWX8FOO)
Industrial Hygiene & Analytical Chemistry
![Dr. Oliver Hankinson](https://ph.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-11/___Oliver_Hankinson-sq.jpg?itok=q7cj47-I)
Dr. Hankinson is a Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and of EHS, and Chair of the Molecular Toxicology IDP
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A UCLA and UC Berkeley-led study finds 370,000 or more people rely on drinking water that may contain high levels of the contaminants arsenic, nitrate or hexavalent chromium.
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NPR (KQED-FM) interviewed Dr. Lara Cushing, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Jonathan and Karin Fielding Presidential Chair in Health Equity and an assistant professor of environmental health sciences, for the “Morning Edition” program, about the impact of sea level rise on current and former industrial sites in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Source: NPR (KQED-FM) Read Full Article