Skip to main content

The Role of Environmental Hazards in Premature Birth Workshop Summary (2003) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

Charge to Participants and Workshop Core
Pages 6-8

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 6...
... Our interest in preterm birth springs from the fact that children who are born too early suffer adverse consequences. One potential consequence of prematurity is respiratory distress syndrome, which impairs the areas of the lung over which oxygen transport and diffusion take place.
Read the entire page →
From page 7...
... We must consider carefully what these environmental factors might be, because understanding the factors that influence these variations will help us develop a better sense of the cause of prematurity and strategies for preventing it. Among the five leading causes of infant mortality, two low birth weight and respiratory distress syndrome are associated with being born too early.
Read the entire page →
From page 8...
... Some of these data point to environmental factors, and these findings bring us back to the traditional public health paradigm in which we must distinguish between social, biological, and environmental factors and try to understand how they interact in the condition of prematurity. Within this context, the specific goals of this workshop are to · summarize the clinical and epidemiological aspects of prematurity; · create an understanding that exposures to environmental chemicals can alter gestation length; · summarize cellular, molecular, and genetic aspects of control of preterm delivery; · recognize that current in vivo and in vitro toxicological testing models are inadequately designed to capture the data showing whether chemicals influence gestation length; · understand that, because preterm delivery is a substantial public health concern, toxicological approaches have to be developed to improve our understanding of the impacts of the chemicals on gestational length; and · recognize that a multidisciplinary approach is needed to better clarify the mechanism underlying gestational length Our overall goal is to begin to summarize the current understanding of prematurity from the particular perspective that each of us brings to this topic and to stimulate cross-disciplinary interaction.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • preterm delivery
  • birth weight
  • gestational length
  • respiratory distress
  • hospital charge

  • born prematurely
  • infant mortality
  • mean hospital
  • spontaneous preterm
  • distress syndrome

  • third child
  • healthy people
  • framework similar
  • chemicals influence
  • ruptured membranes

  • toxicological testing
  • inadequately designed
  • low birth
  • confer risk
  • testing models

  • factors play
  • potential consequence
  • underlying truth
  • genetic factors
  • birth rate

  • child rises
  • severe consequences
  • understand biologically
  • birth involves
  • adverse consequences


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.