May 26, 2011 Babies are born earlier when their mothers live
near a concentration of freeways and main roads, a study of 970
mothers and their newborn babies in Logan City, south of
Brisbane, has found. Senior research fellow Associate Professor
Adrian Barnett from Queensland University of Technology's (QUT)
Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) said the
study, published April 4 in the online journal Environmental
Health, showed that the more freeways and highways around a
pregnant woman's home, the higher the likelihood of her baby
being born prematurely. "The most striking result was the
reduction in gestation time of 4.4 per cent or almost two weeks
associated with an increase in freeways within 400 metres of the
women's home," said Professor Barnett, whose earlier study found
a strong association between increased air pollution and small
fetus size. "Although the increased risks are relatively small,
the public health implications are large because everyone living
in an urban area gets expo