“The growth in the fracking industry has gotten way out ahead of our ability to assess what the environmental and, just as importantly, public health impacts are,” says study leader Brian S. Schwartz, MD, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School. “More than 8,000 unconventional gas wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania alone and we’re allowing this while knowing almost nothing about what it can do to health. Our research adds evidence to the very few studies that have been done in showing adverse health outcomes associated with the fracking industry.”

In Pennsylvania in 2006, there were fewer than 100 unconventional gas wells; now there are more than 8,000.

For his study, Schwartz and his colleagues analyzed data from Geisinger Health System, which covers 40 counties in north and central Pennsylvania. They studied the records of 9,384 mothers who gave birth to 10,946 babies between January 2009 and January 2013. They compared that data with information about wells drilled for fracking and looked at how close they were to the homes of the pregnant mothers as well as what stage of drilling the wells were in, how deep the wells were dug and how much gas was being produced at the wells during the mothers’ pregnancies. Using this information, they developed an index of how active each of the wells were and how close they were to the women.

The researchers found that living in the most active quartile of drilling and production activity was associated with a 40 percent increase in the likelihood of a woman giving birth before 37 weeks of gestation (considered pre-term) and a 30 percent increase in the chance that an obstetrician had labeled their pregnancy “high-risk,” a designation that can include factors such as elevated blood pressure or excessive weight gain during pregnancy. When looking at all of the pregnancies in the study, 11 percent of babies were born preterm, with the majority (79 percent) born between 32 and 36 weeks.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that preterm-related causes of death together accounted for 35 percent of all infant deaths in 2010, more than any other single cause. Being born prematurely is also a leading cause of long-term neurological disabilities in children. Preterm birth cost the U.S. health care system more than $26 billion in 2005, they say.

While the study can’t pinpoint why the pregnant women had worse outcomes near the most active wells, Schwartz says that every step of the drilling process has an environmental impact. When the well pads are created, diesel equipment is used to clear acres of land, transport equipment and drill the wells themselves. Drilling down thousands of feet and then horizontally many more thousands of feet requires heavy equipment to break up the shale where the gas sits. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) then involves injecting millions of liters of water mixed with chemicals and sand to fracture the shale. The fluids are then pumped back to the surface. The gas itself also releases pollutants.

Schwartz also says that having a well developed nearby results in increased noise, road traffic and other changes that can increase maternal stress levels.

“Now that we know this is happening we’d like to figure out why,” Schwartz says. “Is it air quality? Is it the stress? They’re the two leading candidates in our minds at this point.”

Energy companies moved to natural gas wells dug using fracking when gas prices were high and supplies were low. While New York State has banned fracking altogether and there is a moratorium on it in Maryland, Pennsylvania has embraced the industry.

At the peak in 2011, Pennsylvania dug 1,900 wells and gas was $12.11 per thousand cubic feet. And while production is down as prices have plummeted – the state is on track for fewer than 500 new wells in 2015 with the price at $3.69 per thousand cubic feet in July – Schwartz predicts the economy will again shift and fracking will again be back in favor.

Nevertheless, Schwartz says policymakers must understand there may be real risks as they make decisions on future wells. While the research is still in its infancy, Schwartz says everything that has come out so far should give decision makers cause for concern.

“The first few studies have all shown health impacts,” he says. “Policymakers need to consider findings like these in thinking about how they allow this industry to go forward.”

“Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in Pennsylvania, USA” was written by Joan A. Casey, David A. Savitz, Sara G. Rasmussen, Elizabeth L. Ogburn, Jonathan Pollak, Dione G. Mercer and Brian S. Schwartz.The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ES023675-01, ES071541), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Heath & Society Scholars Program and the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship.

5 Comments on "Fracking Wells Associated With Premature Birth"

coffeeguyzz on Thu, 15th Oct 2015 7:31 pm 



The fact that Brian Schwartz is a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute should in no way disallow valid findings from a comprehensive study on topics of such an important matter.

However …

The last sentence in the sixth paragraph above notes an 11% rate of pre-term births in the fourth quartile (the closest of four ‘distances’ groups delineated for this study.
According to the CDC, premature births occur at an 11% rate nationwide.
An organization devoted to helping prevent premature births, the Quint Boenker Foundation, pegs the rate at 12%.
(Even the study’s own data – Table #2 – shows the #3 quartile, ie., farther from the wells, has a 12% rate of pre-term births).
The Pennsylvania DEP, Drexel University, Union Township, Pa, the Fort Cherry school district, have all either conducted or commissioned air quality studies with no harmful effects yet found related to drilling gas wells.

The number of water studies clearing any connectivity to frac’ing/drilling and contamination is large and increasing.

The only receptive audience to these types of ‘studies’ are those who want to believe … facts be damned.

makati1 on Thu, 15th Oct 2015 8:43 pm 



coffeeguyzz, deeply invested in fraking?

“The number of water studies (paid for by the petroleum industry) clearing any connectivity to fracking/drilling and contamination is large and increasing.”

No different than the number of reports that there is no climate change because those same corporate owned think tanks say so while the rest of the world knows climate is changing because they experience it daily.

Like the cover up at Fukushima although thyroid cancer in children exposed has increased dramatically in the last 4 years with real statistics and people.

Denial of anything that affects the bottom line is rampant. That is one of the signs of destructive capitalism. It is a disease common to the greedy.

makati1 on Thu, 15th Oct 2015 10:41 pm 



In other news…

http://www.zerohedge.com/print/514997

“How Do You Prepare A Child For Life In The American Police State?”

Glad mine are all grown and on their own.

makati1 on Thu, 15th Oct 2015 11:08 pm 



Or maybe this one … food for thought.

http://www.naturalnews.com/051557_self-reliance_chicken_sandwich_food_supply.html

“I spent 6 months and $1500 to completely make a sandwich from scratch. Including growing my own vegetables, making my own salt from ocean water, milking a cow to make cheese, grinding my own flour from wheat, collecting my own honey and killing a chicken myself.”

So self-sufficiency is easy? LOL

When you kill a chicken, you will understand the saying: “Like a chicken with it’s head cut off.”

apneaman on Fri, 16th Oct 2015 12:16 am 



coffeeguyzz = another petro tard apologist.

Japan Meteorological Agency — September of 2015 was Hottest on Record — NASA not Far Behind

With a monster El Nino firing off in the Pacific and with atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations now in excess of 480 parts per millions CO2 equivalent, global temperatures for 2015 continue to shatter new all-time records. It’s a sad upshot of continued energy dominance by myopic fossil fuel special interests and the big money investors who have backed them now for the better part of 135 years.

As of September of 2015, temperatures in the global measure provided by Japan’s Meteorological Agency rocketed to 0.5 C above the 1981 to 2000 average or about 1.2 C above average temperatures last seen at the beginning of the 20th Century.”

more

http://robertscribbler.com/2015/10/15/japan-meteorological-agency-september-of-2015-was-hottest-on-record-nasa-not-far-behind/