Biological Environment

Qn. 1

The study aimed to examine the relationship that exists between unconventional natural gas development and perinatal outcomes. The researchers undertook a retrospective birth cohort study, which included 158,894 women who had experienced fetal or birth deaths (Whitworth et al., 2017). The results showed that the odds preterm birth is related to UGD-activity among the highest tertiles. Conclusions showed that there is a relationship between maternal residential proximity to UGD-activity as well as fetal death and preterm birth.

Qn. 2

UGD means utilizing the hydraulic fracturing process where fluid, water and sand are used to extract gas through a high-pressure system (Whitworth et al., 2017). Some risks associated with it include; carcinogens were finding their way into water systems, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and ozone. I believe that the term ‘fracking’ is not used as it entails comprehensive processes that are not specific.

Qn. 3

There is an indication that there is some relationship between maternal residential proximity and UGD. It is also established that the timing for exposure is essential in terms of showing the relationship that exists between the two elements (Whitworth et al., 2017). The authors of this paper feel their study is better than some of the other work that has been done in this area because it entailed women studied within the most advanced shale play in the US.

Qn. 4

IDW is the inverse distance-weighted. It is obtained by having a sum of all active UGD wells within each buffer. The “a” is the distance of the buffer (Whitworth et al., 2017). The “i” is a specific buffer in a given well. The “d” is the total number of wells in a given buffer.

Qn. 5

One hundred fifty-eight thousand eight hundred ninety-four 158,894 samples are included. Some samples were not included because there was a missing fetal death estimate, improbable estimate, unable to street level genocide, the nearness to UGD well and an incomplete address (Whitworth et al., 2017).

Qn. 6

This means that women nearest to wells experienced significant levels of preterm births as compared to those far away from wells (Whitworth et al., 2017).

Qn. 7

In the 2^nd tier of preterm birth, there was a high odd of 01.02, which showed a high level of adverse effects. In the fetal deaths, there was an odds ratio of 0.85 in the 1^st Tertile, which showed a very low impact as a result of being exposed to the wells (Whitworth et al., 2017).

Qn. 8

Being near wells exposed women to the risk of harm as there was a high chance of ingesting polluted water (Whitworth et al., 2017). Also, harmful substances had the opportunity of finding their way into the air and, therefore, women experienced a risk of inhaling them.

Qn. 9

One strength of the study is that large sample size was used; 158,894 samples. Another strength is that the researcher included diverse types of studies in the sample frame (Whitworth et al., 2017). One weakness of the study is that only the retrospective study was done. Another weakness is that no respondents were interviewed.

Qn. 10

Environmental justice should fit in this case because pregnant women were exposed to the risk of losing their pregnancies or having birth complications as a result of the gas extraction activities which occurred around them (Whitworth et al., 2017). It is an issue of social justice because little consideration was put upon the women.

Reference

Whitworth, K., Marshall, A. and E. Symanski. ( 2017). Maternal residential proximity to unconventional gas development and perinatal outcomes among a diverse urban population in Texas. PLOS ONE. 12(7): e0180966. 16 pages. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180966