Fracking Wells Linked To Low Birth Weight: Study

Mothers who lived near fracking sites during pregnancy are more likely to have children who experience a variety of negative health effects, according to a new study from the journal Science Advances.

According to the study, children born to mothers who live one kilometer — about 0.6 miles — from an active fracking well are 25 percent more likely to have low birth weight. Low birth weight can contribute to infant death, ADHD, asthma and other conditions, according to the study.

The process of fracking — short for hydraulic fracturing — uses a number of carcinogens to capture natural gas, according to the Los Angeles Times. Toxic gases including benzene are released from rock during the process.

Janet Currie, chair of Princeton University's department of economics, and her colleagues analyzed more than 1 million births in Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2013 and compared the birth weights of the infants with children who were born to mothers living one, two and three kilometers from fracking wells.

Mothers who lived within one kilometer of a well during pregnancy, the study showed, were 25 percent more likely to give birth to a child weighing under 2,500 grams, about 5.5 pounds. The study also found a significant decline in the average birth weight in children born to mothers living with one kilometer of a well.

The health impacts are "highly local," the researchers wrote: there is little evidence of health risks in children whose mothers lived beyond three kilometers while pregnant.

The researchers found there was some evidence that living within three kilometers of an active fracking well contributes to low birth weight, but at a lower rate — less than half those found in infants with mothers living within one kilometer of a well.

In a statement to Patch, Nicole Jacobs, Pennsylvania director for Energy in Depth, the lobbying arm of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, criticized the study for not accounting for the wide variety of factors that can lead to low birth weight.

She also pointed out that infant mortality rates have declined in the most-drilled region of Pennsylvania.

"The researchers say that a potential negative outcome of low birthweight is infant mortality. But new research based on Pennsylvania Department of Health data show that infant mortality rates have not only declined in the most heavily drilled counties in the Marcellus, but have actually surpassed the state's improvement during the same time period," Jacobs wrote.

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