Residential particulate matter, proximity to major roads, traffic density and traffic volume as risk factors for preterm birth in California

Abstract

Background While pollution from vehicle sources is an established risk factor for preterm birth, it is unclear whether distance of residence to the nearest major road or related measures like major road density represent useful measures for characterising risk. Objective To determine whether major road proximity measures (including distance to major road, major road density and traffic volume) are more useful risk factors for preterm birth than other established vehicle‐related measures (including particulate matter <2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5) and diesel particulate matter (diesel PM)). Methods This retrospective cohort study included 2.7 million births across the state of California from 2011–2017; each address at delivery was geocoded. Geocoding was used to calculate distance to the nearest major road, major road density within a 500 m radius and major road density weighted by truck volume. We measured associations with preterm birth using risk ratios adjusted for target demographic, clinical, socioeconomic and environmental covariates (aRRs). We compared these to the associations between preterm birth and PM2.5 and diesel PM by census tract of residence. Results Findings showed that whereas higher mean levels of PM2.5 and diesel PM by census tract were associated with a higher risk of preterm birth, living closer to roads or living in higher traffic density areas was not associated with higher risk. Residence in a census tract with a mean PM2.5 in the top quartile compared with the lowest quartile was associated with the highest observed risk of preterm birth (aRR 1.04, 95% CI 1.04, 1.05). Conclusions Over a large geographical region with a diverse population, PM2.5 and diesel PM were associated with preterm birth, while measures of distance to major road were not, suggesting that these distance measures do not serve as a proxy for measures of particulate matter in the context of preterm birth.

Association between noise exposure during pregnancy and pregnancy complications: A meta-analysis

“…The remaining 18 studies were subjected to additional screening, including full-text readings and Supplementary materials reviews. After reading full texts, one was excluded because it was not available in full (Hartikainen-Sorri et al, 1991 ), one was excluded because its data was not available (Bilenko et al, 2022 ), and five were excluded because it was not directly related to the research topic (Bendokiene et al, 2011 ; van den Hooven et al, 2011 ; Liao et al, 2019 ; Costello et al, 2022 ; Wing et al, 2022 ). Supplementary Appendix B described the specifics of these excluded studies.…”

Composition Optimization and Damping Performance Evaluation of Porous Asphalt Mixture Containing Recycled Crumb Rubber

“…At present, with the rapid advancement of global urbanization, traffic noise has become the largest source of noise in cities, which has a severe impact on the physical and mental health of urban residents [34]. Driving noise is closely related to road condition, driving speed, tire pattern, and other factors [35][36][37]. The noise generated by the interaction between tire and road accounts for 80-90% of driving noise.…”

Selecting exposure data and identifying relevant exposure windows for birth outcome studies

“…Although they investigated the same outcome, the research questions were different. Costello et al 3 assessed whether living close to major roads was associated with preterm birth in California. By linking birth certificate and hospital discharge data, they were able to adjust for many risk factors with large and diverse populations.…”

“…Another notable contrast between the two studies was the exposure windows. Costello et al 3 considered non‐temporal traffic metrics (i.e., living near major roads, traffic density and traffic volume) as well as long‐term exposure (i.e., the mean of three annual PM 2.5 averages from 2012 to 2014 and diesel PM in 2012). This approach implies that they looked at spatial contrasts in the analyses.…”