Fetal deaths climb with air pollution by J. Raloff Over the past
decade, a host of studies has shown that a day or two after
concentrations of certain key air pollutants rise, so do deaths
among people with respiratory and heart disease, especially
elderly people. Now, a Brazilian study has uncovered evidence of
a similar vulnerability at the opposite end of the age spectrum-
in the womb. Physicians in Sao Paulo must report all
miscarriages that occur during the third trimester of pregnancy.
On most days, there are about 8, though the count can run as low
as 1 or as high as 18. Luiz A.A. Pereira of the University of
Sao Paulo and his colleagues compared daily tallies of these
fetal deaths in 1991 and 1992 to daily concentrations of major
urban air pollutants: nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide
(SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), dust-size particulates, and ozone.
Though the Sao Paulo area has dirty air, "levels of pollution
there are not that different from what you see in many big
cities in [North America]," eve