State Study Confirms It: Fracking Hurts Babies

A new study by the California Air Resources Board found that pregnant people who lived within 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) of active oil and gas wells in the state were 40% more likely to have babies with low birth weight than those not near active wells. While these discrepancies were more prevalent in rural areas, they existed in urban areas as well. In response, Food & Water Action State Director Alexandra Nagy issued the following statement:

"This study reconfirms what hundreds and hundreds of studies from here in California and across the country have shown over and over again: Fossil fuel drilling and fracking are a direct threat to human health - especially our children. When Governor Newsom's own administration is producing studies confirming the harm fracking inflicts on families, his failure to act against this hazardous practice - in fact expanding it in the midst of a pandemic - should be seen as all the more indefensible. There's now only one rational choice for Newsom: Put an immediate halt on new fracking permits and take serious, substantive steps to ramp down oil and gas development in this state immediately, starting with a 2,500-foot setback of existing wells from sensitive receptors."