Air pollution, both inside and outside the home, contributed to the deaths of about 500,000 newborns in 2019, as reported in the State of Global Air 2020. State Of Global Air 2020 PDF
“The number is just staggering,” reports the epidemiologist that led the stufy, Rakesh Ghosh of the University of California, San Francisco. The study suggests air pollution contributes to about 20% of infant deaths.
“I think you can easily dismiss this finding as something that only happens to people who live far away in thatched roof houses and not to us,” says Niermeyer, a professor at the University of Colorado Medicine. “But air pollution effects our babies, as well.”