Upstream oil production, ambient air pollution, and adverse birth outcomes in California
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- An estimated 17.6 million United States residents live within 1.6 km (1 mile) of an active oil or gas well, including 2.1 million Californians. Prior research has found associations between exposure to unconventional natural gas production and a range of adverse health impacts, including preterm birth (delivery at < 37 weeks of gestation). However, there has been less attention to conventional oil and gas production, which is predominant in California. In this dissertation, my objectives were to examine how exposure to upstream oil production in California affects ambient air quality and the risk of spontaneous preterm birth. In Chapter 1, my colleagues and I examined the association between exposure to oil and gas wells and risk of preterm birth among gestating parents in the San Joaquin Valley, California. We conducted a case-control study, a classic epidemiological design, using data on 225,000 births delivered between 1998 and 2011. We found increased odds of preterm birth with high exposure to wells in the first and second trimesters for births delivered at ≤31 weeks (aORs, 1.08--1.14). In stratified analyses, the associations were confined to births to Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black parents and to parents with ≤12 years of educational attainment. In Chapter 2, we investigated the effects of upstream oil and gas production on ambient air quality throughout California. We constructed a panel dataset with daily measurements of five routinely monitored air pollutants from 314 U.S. EPA air quality monitors between 2006 and 2019. We leveraged daily changes in wind direction as an exogenous source of variation and controlled for geographic, meteorological, seasonal, and time-trending factors that may influence air quality. We observed higher concentrations of air pollutants within 4 km of wells in preproduction and 2 km of producing wells. Finally, in Chapter 3 we built on our earlier findings and leveraged a matched-sibling design to determine whether, among births to the same parent, higher exposure to upstream oil and gas production increased preterm birth risk. We obtained data for approximately 1.5 million births to 660,000 parents across California. The results indicate that that higher exposure to preproduction wells and production volume was associated with increased preterm birth risk. This dissertation contributes to understanding of environmental drivers of preterm birth and how upstream oil and gas production affects the environment and health. .
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2021; ©2021 |
| Publication date | 2021; 2021 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Gonzalez, David Joseph Xavier |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Burke, Marshall |
| Degree supervisor | Shaw, Gary, 1952- |
| Thesis advisor | Burke, Marshall |
| Thesis advisor | Shaw, Gary, 1952- |
| Thesis advisor | Baiocchi, Michael |
| Thesis advisor | Cullen, Mark R |
| Degree committee member | Baiocchi, Michael |
| Degree committee member | Cullen, Mark R |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Environment and Resources |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | David Joseph Xavier Gonzalez. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Environment and Resources. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2021. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/ck681vy6518 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2021 by David Joseph Xavier Gonzalez
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...