Burns increase the chance of a baby being born prematurely by up to 31% in Brazil's Southeast region
Much is said about the impact that climate change will bring in the future, however, it is already possible to observe these effects on the health of babies today. This is demonstrated by scientific research conducted by the School of Public Policy and Government of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EPPG), identifying a greater chance of the baby being born prematurely, with congenital malformation or low birth weight, if the mother has been exposed to burns, temperature variations, and air pollution during the first three months of pregnancy.
The increase of 100 fire outbreaks was associated with an 18.55% higher chance of a child being born with low birth weight in the South region of Brazil, considering that mothers were exposed to these burns during the first trimester of pregnancy. This article, which also identified an increase of approximately 1% for the Midwest region, was published in the Scientific Journal The Lancet.
Regarding prematurity, the Southeast region recorded the greatest impact considering exposure to burns. The index found a 31% increase in the chance of the baby being born prematurely if pregnant women were also exposed to this phenomenon during the same period of pregnancy. While in the North, the chance of a child being born prematurely due to burns increases by 5%.
Finally, among 12 categories of congenital malformation analyzed in another study, the most relevant were in the palate and nose region, which had an increase of 0.7%, respiratory system diseases, which was 1.3%, and the nervous system with 0.2%. The regions most affected by the impact of burns on congenital malformation of babies were in the North, South, and Midwest.
Impact of climate variation
Researcher Weeberb Réquia, who coordinated the research, explains that the same factors "low birth weight, prematurity, and congenital malformation" were also researched in association with climate variations. According to him, these three factors are some of the indicators to categorize a healthy birth, according to the medical community. In addition, he highlights that the first three months of pregnancy are fundamental for the baby's health, as it is the crucial moment of its formation.
"Using the same methodology, we identified that the effect of climate on the birth of children with low birth weight was only relevant in the North region, specifically in the Amazon region. With the increase of 1 degree Celsius in temperature, there is a 5.16% higher chance of a child being born with low birth weight," informed the professor.
He highlights that this effect is cumulative, that is, for each degree increased in temperature, more than 5% is added to the chance of the child being born outside the ideal weight. "In studies in the area of environmental epidemiology, we generally consider the association between environmental exposure and health as a function of a certain increase in exposure, to direct the relevance of the risk and future decision-making," added Weeberb.
The professor highlights that research investigating the impact of climate variations on prematurity and congenital malformation is already underway. And after they are completed, he will move on to investigate the impact of air pollution on these three factors: low birth weight, premature birth, and congenital anomalies.
Crossing the data
To find the results, the researcher explains that he used satellite monitoring data that were related to health data. In the study on burns, he used data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which maps the fire outbreaks in Brazil daily, in addition to birth data from DataSUS.
Regarding the study of climate variations, in addition to DataSUS, remote sensing climate data, open to the public, provided by NASA were used. "Nowadays, society lives in the Data Era, and increasingly, we can see that the market is absorbing this reality. Because those who have data have better means of action. In addition, the volume of information is not the same as it used to be. Now we have a very large amount, and that is why there are tools like Big Data to better analyze the potential of the evidence found in the data," declared the researcher.
He reiterates that the public authorities have also understood the importance of this factor, since, nowadays, for a public manager to make decisions and create public policies, it is necessary to base them on evidence, which generally comes from scientific research. However, Weeberb points out that not all information will be available at the exact location and time the researcher needs.
"Many times, a database does not have the information that the researcher wants about a certain time or occurrence, so the scientific community has identified other ways to fill these temporal and spatial information gaps. One of the solutions is to use satellite monitoring data, since it constantly monitors and its frequency will hardly fail," he said.
According to Weeberb, satellite data monitors numerous factors in Brazil. "By using these data, their application is not only viable for studying aspects of health and the environment, as we did in these studies, but also for various areas such as security, transportation, and the economy. These findings can serve as a basis for creating public policies and thus contribute to socio-economic development in our country and the world," concluded the researcher, mentioning that the forecast for completing the other research is by the end of this year.
You can access the studies in full through this link. In addition, you can check another study by the researcher, which investigates the impact of pollution on students' cognition, by clicking here.