Global warming can increase infant mortality
Paris, AFP. Scientists periodically warn about the increasing dangers of global warming. Now in a new study, scientists have discovered a relation between heat and delivery. Scientists claim that because of this, babies are being born prematurely. In such a situation, infant mortality is expected to increase due to the lack of health facilities. Also, the physical and mental development of children can also be affected by this.
Researchers in California said that between 1969–1988 in the United States, 25,000 children were born two weeks earlier in the summer season. This means that these children were deprived of the nutrition received during one lakh 50 thousand gestational days. The authors of the study, published in the journal Nature Research, state that premature labor should be taken seriously.
Alan Rabeka of the University of California-Los Angeles’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability said, “Preterm babies are more likely to be stunted and have an impact on their puberty.”. But more studies are still needed to make strong claims in this regard.
He said, ‘Oxytocin levels rise due to hot weather. It is a hormone that regulates delivery, as well as delivery and heat, also increase cardiovascular stress. ‘ Researchers said that the relationship between the two may be responsible for premature labor.
For this study, Becca and a colleague collected samples of 5.6 lakh people born in the US over a period of 20 years. During this time he found that the birth rate had increased by five percent in the early days, where the temperature was above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 Celsius), i.e. one in every 200 children was born prematurely.
Becca said that if the heat continues to increase year after year due to climate change, the rate of the premature birth of children will continue to increase. If this happens then it is certain that their development will be affected and in such a situation, there will be a risk of death.
Scientists said that it is not certain why deliveries occur quickly as mercury rises. But premature delivery should be taken seriously. “We estimate that perhaps one in a hundred people will be born prematurely by the end of this century, but the rate at which the heat is rising seems to be much smaller,” he said.
