Surrounding Greenness and Exposure to Air Pollution During Pregnancy: An Analysis of Personal Monitoring Data
Open accessAbstract
Background: Green spaces are reported to improve health status, including beneficial effects on pregnancy outcomes. Despite the suggestions of air pollution–related health benefits of green spaces, there is no available evidence on the impact of greenness on personal exposure to air pollution. Objectives: We investigated the association between surrounding greenness and personal exposure to air pollution among pregnant women and to explore the potential mechanisms, if any, behind this association. Methods: In total, 65 rounds of sampling were carried out for 54 pregnant women who resided in Barcelona during 2008–2009. Each round consisted of a 2-day measurement of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and a 1-week measurement of nitric oxides collected simultaneously at both the personal and microenvironmental levels. The study participants were also asked to fill out a time–microenvironment–activity diary during the sampling period. We used satellite retrievals to determine the surrounding greenness as the average of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in a buffer of 100 m around each maternal residential address. We estimated the impact of surrounding greenness on personal exposure levels, home-outdoor and home-indoor pollutant levels, and maternal time-activity. Results: Higher residential surrounding greenness was associated with lower personal, home-indoor, and home-outdoor PM2.5 levels, and more time spent at home-outdoor. Conclusions: We found lower levels of personal exposure to air pollution among pregnant women residing in greener areas. This finding may be partly explained by lower home-indoor pollutant levels and more time spent in less polluted home-outdoor environment by pregnant women in greener areas.
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Pregnant women residing in greener areas in Barcelona, Spain, have lower levels of personal exposure to PM2.5 and nitric oxides.
“Specific to prenatal exposure, Dadvand et al. [207] demonstrated lower levels of personal exposure to PM2.5 and nitric oxides among pregnant women residing in greener areas in Barcelona, Spain.”
From Air pollution and children’s health—a review of adverse effects associated with prenatal exposure from fine to ultrafine particulate matter (2021) · cites this paper as [207]
The Conclusions report lower average personal PM2.5 exposure with higher residential greenness among 54 pregnant women in Barcelona. The Discussion says the similar association for nitric oxides (NOx) was only an indication and did not attain statistical significance, so the claim overstates that part of the finding. (LLM, conf=0.91)
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“[207] demonstrated lower levels of personal exposure to PM2.”
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- Authors
- Dadvand, P., de Nazelle, A., Triguero-Mas, M., Schembari, A., Cirach, M., Amoly, E., Figueras, F., Basagaña, X., Ostro, B., & Nieuwenhuijsen, M.
- Affiliations
- Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (ES)
- Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- Consorci Institut D'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi I Sunyer (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Dadvand, Payam
- Venue
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2012-05-30
- Volume
- 120
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1286-1290
- ISSN
- 0091-6765 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-9924
- PMC
- PMC3440116
- OpenAlex
- W2049214209
- Cited by
- 233
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 7.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- public-domain
- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor, 2039 d)
- Locations
- Environmental Health Perspectives (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Bank (Australian Catholic University) (submittedVersion)
- Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Urban Green Space and Health
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Air Quality and Health Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
- Keywords
- air pollution exposure, pregnancy, particulate matter PM2.5, nitric oxide, indoor air pollution, outdoor air pollution, time-activity patterns, NDVI, green spaces, maternal exposure, Barcelona
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Air Pollutants, Air Pollution, Cities, Climate, Environment, Environmental Exposure, Environmental Monitoring, Female, Humans, Nitrogen Oxides, Seasons, Spain, Particulate Matter
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