Breathing wildfire smoke during pregnancy raises risk of premature birth, study finds

Stanford University research estimates that smoky California air may have resulted in as many as 7,000 preterm births

As California wildfires continue to rage and the Lake Tahoe area faces some of the highest air pollution levels in the world, a new study has found that breathing wildfire smoke during pregnancy increases the risk of premature birth.

The study from Stanford University, published in Environmental Research this month, estimates that the effects of wildfire smoke may have resulted in as many as 7,000 extra preterm births in California between 2007 and 2012.