Oil and gas production and spontaneous preterm birth in the San Joaquin Valley, CA: A case-control study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recent studies report an association between preterm birth and exposure to unconventional oil and gas wells. There has been limited previous study on exposure to conventional wells, which are common in California. Our objective was to determine whether exposure to well sites was associated with increased odds of spontaneous preterm birth (delivery at <37 weeks).

Methods

We conducted a case-control study using data on 27,913 preterm birth cases and 197,461 term birth controls. All births were without maternal comorbidities and were located in the San Joaquin Valley, CA, between 1998 and 2011. We obtained data for 83,559 wells in preproduction or production during the study period. We assessed exposure using inverse distance-squared weighting and, for each birth and

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez DJX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7423522 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature