Pollution and Covid-19: Delhi hit by double whammy 02:21 (CNN)Pregnant women in South Asia who have been exposed to air pollution face an increased risk of pregnancy loss, miscarriage, and stillbirth, according to a new study.
Researchers found that an estimated 349,681 pregnancy losses each year across India, Bangladesh and Pakistan were associated with bad air quality.
Published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal on Wednesday, the study suggests that if these countries met India s air quality standard, it could have prevented 7% of the annual pregnancy losses.
Dirty air has previously been linked to increased miscarriages, premature births and low birth weights among infants, as a result of the effects of pollution on the mother. Other research has found that pollution can breach a mother s placenta and potentially reach fetuses in the womb.