Pregnancy, race and climate: Research shows dangers, inequities

Any woman who is pregnant during the summer knows that heat and humidity are the enemies of a comfortable pregnancy. She's tired, and she's carrying a little heater around inside her belly all day. She may not realize that extreme heat, as well as the air pollution that is both cause and consequence of climate change, also pose a risk to her baby.

Research published recently by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that when pregnant women were exposed to extreme heat or air pollution, their babies were more likely to be premature, underweight or stillborn. What's more, the new research reveals that Black women and their newborns are harmed at much higher rates.

Heat stress can harm pregnant women by triggering hormones that start labor or cause the membranes to break, resulting in preterm birth. It can also reduce blood flow to the uterus, affect the volume of amniotic fluid that cradles the baby or interfere with the placenta.

Two types of air pollution also harm pregnant women: fine particulate matter and ozone. Wherever we burn fossil fuels - in vehicles, trains, and planes for example - tiny toxic particles small enough to pass through lung tissue into the bloodstream are released. This pollution can harm the heart, brain, nervous system, and many other organs. Ozone, which damages the lungs, forms when heat and sunlight act on air pollution. Both types of pollution are connected to climate change. Burning fossil fuels causes particulate pollution and releases carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide raises global air temperatures by trapping heat from the sun. And the increased heat from global warming increases ozone formation.

All mothers are at risk of heat and air pollution, but the racial wealth gap means that Black women are less able to escape extreme heat or to live in communities with clean air. Sadly, their babies are more likely to suffer consequences. If you live on a hot, treeless island of concrete; if you have no air conditioning or can't afford to run it; if you work outdoors; or if your workplace is not air-conditioned, you and your baby will suffer during the heat waves. If the only home you can afford is right next to the highway, the smokestack or the incinerator, your baby faces risks that more-fortunate babies never do.

This research adds to a growing body of work documenting racial disparities in the impact of air pollution on health. The causes of the disparities are multifactorial, but the role of the racial wealth gap is significant. It's bitterly ironic that, although Black communities are responsible for much less pollution than white communities, Black infants are much more likely than white infants to face a lifetime of health problems caused by global warming and air pollution. Is this equitable?

Society is waking up to the fact that climate change and its outsized impact on marginalized communities must be addressed together. Nationally, progressive youth of all backgrounds are demanding that Congress address both climate change and social injustice.

Locally, the sight of our Black, white, Latinx, and Asian teens working together to organize peaceful rallies and marches inspires us. The crowds of citizens of all ages and ethnicities attending these rallies and the enthusiastic horn-honks of passing drivers give us hope.

Because both social and climate injustice are systemic issues, we need national policies and actions that clear the air and put out the planetary fire without increasing the economic burden on marginalized communities. The JAMA study concludes that physicians should "insist on effective action to stop the climate crisis." We must all do this.

Solutions exist, but solutions will work only if your elected officials know you want them. Tell your representatives in Washington that you want legislation to phase out fossil fuels quickly. Tell them you want clean air. Tell them you want climate justice for all, but especially for all the mothers and their newborn babies.

• Terry Quain is a volunteer with Citizens' Climate Lobby and leads a chapter in Naperville. Janice Guider is chairperson of the Health Committee of the DuPage NAACP, covering as well Kane, Kendall and Will counties. This essay is the second in a series of commentaries the Daily Herald is publishing this week in conjunction with Covering Climate Now, a global initiative of news agencies to focus attention on climate issues.