Prenatal Exposure to Environmental Pollutants and Other Stressors: Impacts on Fetal Development, Birth Outcomes, Children’s Health and Beyond
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 32178
Special Issue Editor
Interests: environmental, occupational and public health; chemical compounds; reproductive toxicity; cohort studies; epidemiology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue of IJERPH provides an opportunity for the research community to publish its invaluable and updated research findings pertaining to prenatal exposure, birth outcomes and children’s health.
The impact of prenatal exposure to environmental pollutants and other stressors poses a threat to fetal development in all stages of pregnancy. Early life exposures have been shown to interfere with fetal and early childhood development and are known to impact morbidity and mortality in adulthood. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes that environmental pollution is a major cause of global disease, death and disability, with a toll greater than that caused by the communicable diseases HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Although reproductive health is an ongoing priority worldwide, living conditions and access to health care are defined by the geography, climatic conditions and economic structures of individual countries. Early life exposures are also affected by the health and nutritional status as well as lifestyle of pregnant women; these combined factors are widely recognized to negatively influence birth outcomes and children’s health.
In general, policies related to the control of pollutants and emerging climate changes affect the broader population at large, but particularly ‘at risk’ groups such as pregnant women and their infants and young children—especially those living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Given your research interests and outputs, we are pleased to invite you to contribute your impactful research findings to this Special Issue.
The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together researchers from different countries and continents (we welcome contributions from both the industrialized world and LMICs) to share their expertise and advance our understanding of the complex interaction between exposure to contaminants during the prenatal stages, birth outcomes and health risks in children. Multidisciplinary research is needed in this rapidly evolving field in order to understand the diversity of exposures from a global perspective and the associated health effects. Moreover, it will be important to link recent research findings with efforts to achieve the objectives of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.
Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following: prenatal exposures to environmental pollutants; birth outcomes; longitudinal studies of birth cohorts; sex/gender aspects in response to pollutant exposures; impact of specific exposures on long-term health effects; disease susceptibility associated with genetic, epigenetic and lifestyle factors; nutritional effects; climatic influences; methodological and epidemiological studies; toxicological studies; potential impacts of prenatal exposures on the development of non-communicable diseases in neonates and young children; and issues that inform prevention strategies, policy formulation, and the interface and overlap between environmental and public health.
Before preparing your contribution, please submit an abstract so that the topic’s suitability to the Special Issue themes can be ascertained.
We look forward to receiving your contributions and to impactful collaboration across different areas of expertise and geographical regions.
Prof. Dr. Halina B. Röllin
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- reproductive health
- prenatal exposure
- birth outcomes
- toxic effects
- sex/gender response
- susceptibility
- children’s health
- environmental health
- public health
- prevention strategies and policy formulation
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