Researchers from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the University of Southern California have found that a high level of exposure to oil and gas “flaring” events — the burning off of excess natural gas at production sites — is associated with a 50% higher risk for preterm birth, compared with women who aren’t exposed to flaring.
Researchers from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the University of Southern California have found that a high level of exposure to oil and gas “flaring” events — the burning off of excess natural gas at production sites — is associated with a 50% higher risk for preterm birth, compared with women who aren’t exposed to flaring.
The researchers defined a high level of exposure as 10 or more nightly flare events within a distance of 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) of the woman’s home.
“Prior studies suggest living near oil and gas wells adversely affects birth outcomes, but no studies had yet examined flaring — the open combustion of natural gas,” said Lara Cushing, an environmental health scientist at the Fielding School and the study’s co-lead author. “Our findings suggest that living within three miles of flaring adversely impacts pregnant women and infants.”
The study is published today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Researchers examined 23,487 live single births to women living within Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale between 2012 and 2015. The Eagle Ford Shale, measuring 50 miles wide and 400 miles long, is one of the nation’s most productive oil and gas regions, due to unconventional drilling practices such as hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking. In a previous study, the research team estimated the area was subject to more than 43,000 flaring events between 2012 and 2016.
Read more at University of California-Los Angeles
