Heat is a hidden threat to many working women during pregnancy, especially in the summer months. As reported by APE-MBE, Dr Andreas Flouris, Professor of Physiology at the Department of Physical Education and Sports Science of the University of Thessaly, “the increased temperature can seriously affect the health of both the pregnant woman and the unborn child, making their protection in the working environment extremely important”. He is one of the world’s best-known scientists in the study of the effects that environmental factors such as heat have on health and quality of life.

Continuing, Dr. Fluris explains that “maternal heat exposure increases the risk of many pregnancy complications, including congenital anomalies, stillbirth, preterm birth, low birth weight, preeclampsia, and premature rupture of membranes. However, it remains unknown how heat exposure causes these adverse effects. With climate change making its presence more intense every year and with births in our country constantly decreasing, it is important to understand and deal with the problems that heat causes to the health of the pregnant woman and the fetus.”

“We decided to study this issue in our country, but we also wanted to help women who live in countries where there is much more heat and less health care,” Dr. Fluris tells us. Funded by the WelcomeTrust of the United Kingdom and cooperation with Medical Research Council of The Gambia and University of CambridgeDr. Flouris and his colleagues at FAMELab laboratory of the University of Thessaly will study 30 pregnant women in Greece and 800 pregnant women in Gambia. As Dr. Flouris explains, “our female volunteers in Greece will be exposed to conditions of mild heat and physical exercise in a specially designed chamber that we have in the Laboratory. These conditions are proven not to cause negative effects on the health of the mother and the fetus, but our high-tech sensors and the detailed measurements we will make will allow us to detect if there would be any risk if our volunteers were exposed to more intense heat or physical work. We will also be able to study the mechanisms by which heat affects the health of the pregnant woman and the fetus. This is important because if we understand these mechanisms, we can find solutions to address the problem.”

With the experiments in Greece having already begun, o Dr. Flouris and Dr. Leonidas Ioannou, who is a postdoctoral researcher at the FAMELab, recently traveled to The Gambia to organize the study there. As Dr. Ioannou explains, “our intention is to transfer to our collaborators in The Gambia the expertise we have developed in studying the effects of heat on the physiology of the human body. Around the world, women make up a significant proportion of unregistered workers and often work in precarious conditions. In many countries of the world, such as the West African region where The Gambia is located, half of the agricultural workers are women, and many of them work during pregnancy. In addition, they work long hours every day to fulfill the daily needs of the house as well as many laborious manual tasks. All this, despite our studies showing that women are likely to have a lower heat tolerance than men.”

Studies by Dr. Fluris and his colleagues in The Gambia will make continuous recordings during the pregnancy of 800 women. Half of them live in Banjul, the capital of the country located on the Atlantic coast. The other half of the pregnant women live in Get down, a city of 200 thousand inhabitants located approximately 350 kilometers inland. In Banjul, the temperature during the year ranges from 18 to 33 degrees Celsius while in Basse the heat is much more intense with temperature ranging from 22 to 42 degrees Celsius. “By purposefully choosing two areas in The Gambia with different levels of heat exposure, we will be able to study whether pregnancy complications increase as exposure to the hot environment increases,” explains Dr. Fluris. He goes on to say that “this study is a critical step in understanding and addressing the risks of heat exposure for pregnant workers. As climate change intensifies temperatures, the knowledge gained from research in Greece and The Gambia will provide vital data to improve working conditions and protect the health of pregnant women. Our data will lead to new prevention and intervention strategies, both nationally and internationally.” Concluding, the professor underlines that “it is important to continue to support and invest in research and education to protect vulnerable populations from extreme temperatures, thus ensuring a better future for all women and their children.”