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Exposure to Stress and Air Pollution from Bushfires during Pregnancy: Could Epigenetic Changes Explain Effects on the Offspring?

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posted on 2025-05-09, 18:04 authored by Vanessa MurphyVanessa Murphy, Wilfried Karmaus, Edward Jegasothy, Paul D. Robinson, Peter GibsonPeter Gibson, Joerg MattesJoerg Mattes, Bronwyn BrewBronwyn Brew, Adam CollisonAdam Collison, Elizabeth HollidayElizabeth Holliday, Megan JensenMegan Jensen, Geoffrey G. Morgan, Graeme R. Zosky, Vanessa McDonaldVanessa McDonald
Due to climate change, bushfires are becoming a more frequent and more severe phenomenon which contributes to poor health effects associated with air pollution. In pregnancy, environmental exposures can have lifelong consequences for the fetus, but little is known about these consequences in the context of bushfire smoke exposure. In this review we summarise the current knowledge in this area, and propose a potential mechanism linking bushfire smoke exposure in utero to poor perinatal and respiratory outcomes in the offspring. Bushfire smoke exposure is associated with poor pregnancy outcomes including reduced birth weight and an increased risk of prematurity. Some publications have outlined the adverse health effects on young children, particularly in relation to emergency department presentations and hospital admissions for respiratory problems, but there are no studies in children who were exposed to bushfire smoke in utero. Prenatal stress is likely to occur as a result of catastrophic bushfire events, and stress is known to be associated with poor perinatal and respiratory outcomes. Changes to DNA methylation are potential epigenetic mechanisms linking both smoke particulate exposure and prenatal stress to poor childhood respiratory health outcomes. More research is needed in large pregnancy cohorts exposed to bushfire events to explore this further, and to design appropriate mitigation interventions, in this area of global public health importance.

History

Journal title

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Volume

18

Issue

14

Article number

7465

Publisher

MDPI AG

Language

  • en, English

College/Research Centre

College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing

School

School of Medicine and Public Health

Rights statement

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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