Current:Home > ScamsPremature Birth Rates Drop in California After Coal and Oil Plants Shut Down -PrimeFinance
Premature Birth Rates Drop in California After Coal and Oil Plants Shut Down
View
Date:2025-04-18 02:39:24
Shutting down power plants that burn fossil fuels can almost immediately reduce the risk of premature birth in pregnant women living nearby, according to research published Tuesday.
Researchers scrutinized records of more than 57,000 births by mothers who lived close to eight coal- and oil-fired plants across California in the year before the facilities were shut down, and in the year after, when the air was cleaner.
The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that the rate of premature births dropped from 7 to 5.1 percent after the plants were shuttered, between 2001 and 2011. The most significant declines came among African American and Asian women. Preterm birth can be associated with lifelong health complications.
The results add fresh evidence to a robust body of research on the harmful effects of exposure to air pollution, especially in young children—even before they’re born.
“The ah-ha moment was probably just seeing what a large, estimated effect size we got,” said lead author Joan Casey, who is a post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. “We were pretty shocked by it—to the point that we did many, many additional analyses to try to make it go away, and didn’t succeed.”
Coal– and oil-fired power plants emit a bevy of air pollutants that have known negative impacts on public health—including fine particulate matter (or PM 2.5), nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides, benzene, lead and mercury.
Using birth records from the California Department of Public Health, the researchers found mothers who lived within 5 kilometers, 5-10 kilometers and 10-20 kilometers of the eight power plants. The women living farthest away provided a control group, since the authors assumed their exposure would be minimal.
The authors controlled for many socioeconomic, behavioral, health, race and ethnicity factors affecting preterm birth. “That could account for things like Obamacare or the Great Recession or the housing crisis,” Casey said.
The study found that the women living within 5 kilometers of the plants, those most exposed to the air pollution, saw a significant drop in preterm births.
Greater Impact on African American Women
In an accompanying commentary in the journal, Pauline Mendola, a senior investigator with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, wrote that the methods and creative design of the study add to its importance.
“The authors do an excellent job of testing alternative explanations for the observed associations and examining social factors that might increase vulnerability,” she wrote.
Noel Mueller, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University who also studies health impacts of air pollution, said one particularly notable and complicated finding was the greater impact on non-Hispanic African American and Asian women. African American women, in particular, are known to have higher rates of preterm childbirth.
“Studies like this highlight a potential role that environmental exposure might have in driving that disparity,” he said. “I think that’s really important.”
What Happens When Air Pollution Continues
In a separate article published last week in the American Heart Association’s journal Hypertension, Mueller examined what can happen when the pollution source is not eliminated.
In a study that looked at 1,293 mothers and their children in the Boston area, Mueller and his coauthors found that babies who were exposed to higher levels of particulate matter during the third trimester were significantly more likely to have high blood pressure in childhood.
Particulate matter can come from cars and the burning of coal, oil and biomass.
Casey, the author of the California study, said the findings from the two studies are related. “We know that preterm birth isn’t the end of the outcomes for a child that is born early,” she said.
Mueller said the same factors that can cause preterm labor, such as higher intrauterine inflammation, also could be causing higher blood pressure in children who have been exposed.
“It raises serious questions about whether we want to roll back any environmental regulations,” Mueller said.
In her commentary on the California study, Mendola made a similar observation.
“We all breathe. Even small increases in mortality due to ambient air pollution have a large population health impact,” she wrote. “Of course, we need electricity and there are costs and benefits to all energy decisions, but at some point we should recognize that our failure to lower air pollution results in the death and disability of American infants and children.”
veryGood! (32)
Related
- Gen. Mark Milley's security detail and security clearance revoked, Pentagon says
- Ayo Edebiri, Quinta Brunson and More Black Women Already Making History in 2024
- Brad Pitt to star in Quentin Tarantino's final film 'The Movie Critic': Reports
- Alyssa Milano slams people trolling her son over sports team fundraiser: 'Horrid'
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- Here's what you need to know for 2024 US Olympic marathon trials in Orlando
- Here's what you need to know for 2024 US Olympic marathon trials in Orlando
- What Iran's leaders and citizens are saying as the U.S. plans strikes on Iranian targets in Iraq and Syria
- 'Kraven the Hunter' spoilers! Let's dig into that twisty ending, supervillain reveal
- Jim Harbaugh introduced as Chargers head coach: Five takeaways from press conference
Ranking
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- Discovery of bones and tools in German cave could rewrite history of humans and Neanderthals: Huge surprise
- Target pulls Black History Month product after video points out misidentified icons
- Power restored to BP oil refinery in Indiana after outage prompts evacuation, shutdown, company says
- 'Squid Game' without subtitles? Duolingo, Netflix encourage fans to learn Korean
- Providence approves first state-sanctioned safe injection site in Rhode Island
- Watch: Punxsutawney Phil does not see his shadow on Groundhog Day 2024
- Lincoln University and the murky world of 'countable opponents' in college sports
Recommendation
Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
Dylan Sprouse Details Vicious Fistfight With Cole Sprouse on Suite Life Set
Wendy Williams Bombshell Documentary Details Her Struggle With Alcohol, Money & More
New York Community Bancorp's stock tanks, stoking regional bank concerns after 2023 crisis
Apple iOS 18.2: What to know about top features, including Genmoji, AI updates
Steal Hearts With Michael Kors' Valentine’s Day Collection Full of Chic Finds That’ll Woo Her Away
Fat Tuesday means big business for New Orleans bakers under exploding demand for King Cakes
NPR's Student Podcast Challenge is back – with a fourth-grade edition!