Living in close proximity to oil and gas operations may increase the risk of preterm birth, according to new research on births in California’s primary oil-producing region.
Living in close proximity to oil and gas operations may increase the risk of preterm birth, according to new research on births in California’s primary oil-producing region. The work could inform discussions about the state’s implementation of setbacks from oil and gas extraction facilities.
Researchers examined 225,000 births from mothers who lived within about six miles of oil and gas wells in the San Joaquin Valley from 1998 to 2011. The results show that women who lived near wells in the first and second trimesters were 8 to 14 percent more likely to experience a spontaneous preterm birth – one that would otherwise be unexplained – at 20 to 31 weeks. Spontaneous preterm birth, in which a pregnancy ends before 37 weeks of gestation, is the leading cause of infant death in the United States.
The study, published June 5 in Environmental Epidemiology, adds to a small body of population-based research aimed at better understanding how environmental factors may affect the health outcomes of pregnancy, and it is among the first to investigate a potential link between residential proximity to oil and gas operations and spontaneous preterm birth in California. About 17 million people in the United States live within one mile of an active oil or gas well, including 2.1 million in California.
“There’s some evidence that environmental exposures increase risk of preterm birth, but this particular exposure – oil and gas – has received very little attention in California, despite having millions of people living in close proximity to wells,” said lead author David Gonzalez, a PhD candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford University’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). “We’re getting a sense that this does potentially have an adverse effect on health outcomes of pregnancy.”
Read more at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences
Image: A pumpjack operating a well in the Signal Hill neighborhood in Los Angeles County, California. In the San Joaquin Valley, where pumpjacks are also in close proximity to houses, researchers found living near oil and gas development is a risk factor for spontaneous preterm birth. (Credit: Photo credit: David Gonzalez)
