Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The meta study notes at least one study which did not find a significant connection between heat exposure and premature birth, but the consensus appears to be black expectant mothers are especially at risk from global warming.
Climate crisis poses serious risks for pregnancy, investigation finds
Air pollution and heat exposure linked to negative outcomes
Researchers discover ‘pretty scary health burdens’
More than a decade of overwhelming evidence links air pollution and heat exposure with negative pregnancy outcomes in the US, according to a new review of dozens of studies.
The investigation, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, identified 57 studies since 2007 showing a significant association between the two factors and the risk of pre-term birth, low birth weight and stillbirth.
Black mothers were particularly at risk, as were people with asthma.
The review analyzed 32m births tracked across 68 studies. Of those, 84% found air pollution and heat to be risk factors.
…
“When you talk about climate, people think about severe weather, big storms or huge fires … but we wanted to talk about the impacts that are common and widespread and ongoing and also are rarely attributed to the climate crisis,” said Bruce Bekkar, a co-author of the study and a retired obstetrician.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/18/climate-change-air-pollution-investigation-study
The abstract of the study;
June 18, 2020
Association of Air Pollution and Heat Exposure With Preterm Birth, Low Birth Weight, and Stillbirth in the USA Systematic Review
Bruce Bekkar, MD1; Susan Pacheco, MD2; Rupa Basu, PhD3,4; et alNathaniel DeNicola, MD, MSHP5
JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(6):e208243. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.8243Importance Knowledge of whether serious adverse pregnancy outcomes are associated with increasingly widespread effects of climate change in the US would be crucial for the obstetrical medical community and for women and families across the country.
Objective To investigate prenatal exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone, and heat, and the association of these factors with preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth.
Evidence Review This systematic review involved a comprehensive search for primary literature in Cochrane Library, Cochrane Collaboration Registry of Controlled Trials, PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov website, and MEDLINE. Qualifying primary research studies included human participants in US populations that were published in English between January 1, 2007, and April 30, 2019. Included articles analyzed the associations between air pollutants or heat and obstetrical outcomes. Comparative observational cohort studies and cross-sectional studies with comparators were included, without minimum sample size. Additional articles found through reference review were also considered. Articles analyzing other obstetrical outcomes, non-US populations, and reviews were excluded. Two reviewers independently determined study eligibility. The Arskey and O’Malley scoping review framework was used. Data extraction was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) reporting guideline.
Findings Of the 1851 articles identified, 68 met the inclusion criteria. Overall, 32 798 152 births were analyzed, with a mean (SD) of 565 485 (783 278) births per study. A total of 57 studies (48 of 58 [84%] on air pollutants; 9 of 10 [90%] on heat) showed a significant association of air pollutant and heat exposure with birth outcomes. Positive associations were found across all US geographic regions. Exposure to PM2.5 or ozone was associated with increased risk of preterm birth in 19 of 24 studies (79%) and low birth weight in 25 of 29 studies (86%). The subpopulations at highest risk were persons with asthma and minority groups, especially black mothers. Accurate comparisons of risk were limited by differences in study design, exposure measurement, population demographics, and seasonality.
Conclusions and Relevance This review suggests that increasingly common environmental exposures exacerbated by climate change are significantly associated with serious adverse pregnancy outcomes across the US.
Read more: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2767260
From the body of the study;
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Three studies44–46 examining large numbers of preterm births (range, 14 466-58 681 births) in California noted an increased risk of preterm birth for each 5.6 °C-increase in temperature, as did another study covering 12 clinical sites across the US for 2.8 °C increase.47
Two reports from California45,46 found an association of racial/ethnic disparity and heat exposure with an increasing risk of preterm birth; higher risk was found among black mothers. Increased risk of preterm birth was also found for Asian mothers and younger mothers in Basu et al.46
One cross-sectional analysis did not identify a significant association with preterm birth and heat exposure. Kloog et al’s48 satellite-based spatial modeling technique in Massachusetts found no association with preterm birth (1.04; 95% CI, 0.96-1.13) and a small reduction in gestational age at delivery (–0.26%; 95% CI, –0.28% to –0.25%) per 2.8 °C whole-pregnancy mean ambient temperature increase. Of note, standard monitoring data with similar elevated temperatures showed an association with preterm birth (1.02; 95% CI, 1.00-1.05).
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Read more: Same link as above
It is difficult to believe that people whose recent ancestors mostly came from Northern Europe are more able to tolerate heat than people whose ancestors mostly came from Africa. But these are peer reviewed studies.
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Here’s a pretty good alternative hypothesis regarding preterm birth:
Maternal 25(OH)D concentrations ≥40 ng/mL associated with 60% lower preterm birth risk among general obstetrical patients at an urban medical center
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180483
Here is a pertinent fact from Grassrootshealth.net:
80%+ of Pregnant Woman and Virtually 100% of African American Woman are Vitamin D Deficient
Here is a very good summary of the role of Vitamin D in gestational health of both mother and child. It’s a quick read, with lots of scientific papers to back up the observations:
https://www.grassrootshealth.net/project/protect-our-children-now
Is there anything Blacks don’t suffer more from?? I’m sorry, but it’s not my fault. Except Global Warmining. That’s my fault.
Gout is more problematic in Blacks… Especially as the planet warms out of control…
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24768965/
I think they do better with skin cancer. But I am sure there is a study on ozone depletion somewhere which says they are more at risk.
Unless the study went to great efforts to consider many possible confounding factors and successfully eliminate them, it is completely worthless.
The NY Times article on the study mentions the urban heat island effect as one of the points of evidence — that those living in the hotter urban cores have worse outcomes that in the cooler suburbs.
But anyone with the least analytic ability should realize that it is a VERY long way from noting this association to concluding that the higher temperatures are THE main causal (or even A causal) factor.
Article is racist, stupid, old wives tale and a felony.
It is akin to Nazi justifications for the holocaust.
Absolutely true, because blacks come from Africa and Africa is so darn cold.
Hmm, so having an air conditioner and eating right has nothing to do with outcome? Otherwise the study would have identified “Poverty” as the risk factor…but nooo, let’s make up something we can tie to global warming. After all, people with very dark skin evolved in far northern climates where there is no heat problem so obviously they would be prone to harm from global warming. Oh, wait…
“It is difficult to believe that people whose recent ancestors mostly came from Northern Europe are more able to tolerate heat than people whose ancestors mostly came from Africa. But these are peer reviewed studies.”
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Exactly my first thought as soon as I saw the headline.
Just when I think (again) that they can’t come up with anything dumber….
Birth rates per 1000 population in Africa are around 3x what they are in the west.
They don’t seem to be getting put off by the heat, despite antiquated healthcare.
Straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel.
Without stereotyping all black women; just focusing on the large percentage who are low on the socioeconomic totem pole. They live in poor areas of cities which tend to have much higher particulate pollution than suburbs or rural areas, and they are less likely to avail themselves of free health care and prenatal services or take precautions for their own health or the health of their developing baby.
The impact of personal choices far outweighs any supposed “climate impact” from “heat exposure” that is only modestly warmer than rural areas (due to the urban heat island effect), and that is increasing very modestly globally; approximately 1.4 C per century.
I just seem to be unaware that black US mothers are not allowed access to A/C during delivery. It must be a law that I never heard of. Me bad. Seems racist to have such laws.
Errr, yes , well…..
How do black expectant mothers get on in Nigeria, Benin, Ghana…?
Quite well if population figures are any guide
This “study” is part of the plan to weaponize black Americans. “Reparations” are another. What can be bought, can be sold.
I was thinking air conditioning could take care of this problem.
See!!!!!! we do too believe in science.
The alleged explanatory variables (heat, ozone, and PM25 exposure) WERE NOT MEASURED. They were estimated by such claptrap as distance to a freeway.
The
quacksresearchers used bogus “indicators” instead of actual measurements, which were impossible to obtain because nobody measures their intake of particulates or ozone on a breath-by-breath basis.Then they had the unmitigated gall to apply “statistics” to their gobbledygook measurement-free junk “data”.
If this kabuki puppet show fake false masquerade is accepted as “science” by the posers who edit JAMA, then Science is truly dead. Science has passed away, croaked, and kicked the bucket, and we need to bury the corpse before it stinks up the place. Cue the funeral march.
Actually it’s worse than that, much worse. The following may offend somebody, and if so, too bad.
By some estimates six in ten black pregnancies end in abortion. Since Roe v. Wade (1973) 61.6 million abortions have been performed in the US, and 25-40% of those were on black women — in the last 47 years 15-25 million black babies have been aborted.
Planned Parenthood was founded by a racist eugenicist and her goals were genocidal. Those goals were adopted and promulgated by the Democrat Party, the party of slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow, and segregation. Abortion “clinics” have been established in inner cities where the black population is greatest; cities run overwhelmingly by Democrats. Abortion is the single most important issue to Democrats.
Abortion is taught in medical schools and studied by JAMA readers and adherents. When JAMA attempts to blame “climate” and “air pollution” for black pregnancy failure, they are covering up their own complicity in the largest genocide since Genghis Khan.
Black Lives Matter supports and is a branch of the Democrat Party. BLM is thus also complicit in black genocide. They advocate for abortion of blacks, which is the exact opposite of their nominal mission.
The JAMA “science” is a fraud designed to hide their monstrous participation in the ugliest chapter of human civilization: the deliberate genocide of a minority “race”.
Does it not bother anyone else that this is a study of studies? How can you come up with any kind of numbers using this kind of varied data with any sort of accuracy. This is the science used to get the bogus 97%.