Winter Air Pollution from Domestic Coal Fired Heating in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Is Strongly Associated with a Major Seasonal Cyclic Decrease in Successful Fecundity

Jargalsaikhan Badarch, James Harding, Emma Dickinson-Craig, Colleen Azen, Hilary Ong, Samantha Hunter, Pia S. Pannaraj, Brigitta Szepesi, Tegshjargal Sereenendorj, Sumiya Davaa, Chimedsuren Ochir, David Warburton and Carol Readhead
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Jargalsaikhan Badarch: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar 14210, Mongolia
James Harding: The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA
Emma Dickinson-Craig: Institute for Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Colleen Azen: The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA
Hilary Ong: The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA
Samantha Hunter: The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA
Pia S. Pannaraj: The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA
Brigitta Szepesi: United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21402, USA
Tegshjargal Sereenendorj: Mongolian Association of Obstetrics Gynecology and Neonatology, P.O. Box 802, Ulaanbaatar 14210, Mongolia
Sumiya Davaa: Urguu Maternity Hospital, Ulaanbaatar 14210, Mongolia
Chimedsuren Ochir: Ministry of Health, Ulaanbaatar 14210, Mongolia
David Warburton: The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA
Carol Readhead: Biology and Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 5, 1-11

Abstract: Pollution of the environment is increasing and threatens the health and wellbeing of adults and children around the globe. The impact of air pollution on pulmonary and cardiovascular disease has been well documented, but it also has a deleterious effect on reproductive health. Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, has one of the highest levels of air pollution in the world. During the extreme winters when temperatures routinely fall below ?20 °C the level of air pollution can reach 80 times the WHO recommended safe levels. Heating mainly comes from coal, which is burned both in power stations, and in stoves in the traditional Ger housing. We studied the impact of air pollution on conception rates and birth outcomes in Ulaanbaatar using a retrospective analysis of health data collected from the Urguu Maternity hospital in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Daily levels of SO 2 , NO 2 , PM 10 , and PM 2.5 were collected from the government Air Quality Monitoring Stations in Ulaanbaatar for the same period as the study. In January, the month of highest pollution, there is a 3.2-fold decrease in conceptions that lead to the successfully delivered infants compared to October. The seasonal variations in conceptions resulting in live births in this study in Ulaanbaatar are shown to be 2.03 ± 0.20 (10-sigma) times greater than those in the Denmark/North America study of Wesselink et al., 2020. The two obvious differences between Ulaanbaatar and Europe/North America are pollution and temperature both of which are extreme in Ulaanbaatar. The extreme low temperature is mitigated by burning coal, which is the main source of domestic heat especially in the ger districts. This drives the level of pollution so the two are inextricably linked. Infants conceived in the months of June-October had the greatest cumulative PM 2.5 pollution exposure over total gestation, yet these were also the pregnancies with the lowest PM 2.5 exposure for the month of conception and three months prior to conception. The delivered-infant conception rate shows a markedly negative association with exposure to PM 2.5 prior to and during the first month of pregnancy. This overall reduction in fecundity of the population of Ulaanbaatar is therefore a preventable health risk. It is of great consequence that the air pollution in Ulaanbaatar affects health over an entire lifespan including reproductive health. This could be remedied with a clean source of heating.

Keywords: winter air pollution; conception; fecundity; Ulaanbaatar Mongolia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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