Drilling and Production Activity Related to Unconventional Gas Development and Severity of Preterm Birth.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Studies of unconventional gas development (UGD) and preterm birth (PTB) have not presented risk estimates by well development phase or trimester. OBJECTIVE:We examined phase and trimester-specific associations between UGD activity and PTB. METHODS:We conducted a case-control study of women with singleton births in the Barnett Shale area, Texas, from 30 November 2010 to 29 November 2012. We individually age- and race/ethnicity-matched five controls to each PTB case (n=13,328) and truncated controls' time at risk according to the matched case's gestational age. We created phase-specific UGD-activity metrics: a) inverse squared distance-weighted (IDW) count of wells in the drilling phase ≤0.5 mi (804.7 meters) of the residence and b) IDW sum of natural gas produced ≤0.5 mi of the r

SUBMITTER: Walker Whitworth K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6071723 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature