ArticleEnvironmental health : a global access science source2018
Increase in fertility following coal and oil power plant retirements in California.
Article in Environmental health : a global access science source, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Racialized economic segregation in relation to fecundability in a preconception cohort study.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2026Article
- High populations near fossil fuel energy infrastructure across the supply chain and implications for an equitable energy transition.Environmental research letters : ERL [Web site] · 2025Article
- Sulfur dioxide reduction at coal-fired power plants in North Carolina and associations with preterm birth among surrounding residents.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2023Article
- Estimating Causal Effects of Interventions on Early-life Environmental Exposures Using Observational Data.Current environmental health reports · 2023Review
- Historical red-lining is associated with fossil fuel power plant siting and present-day inequalities in air pollutant emissions.Nature energy · 2023Article
- Source-specific contributions of particulate matter to asthma-related pediatric emergency department utilization.Health information science and systems · 2021Article
- Chemical Exposures, Health, and Environmental Justice in Communities Living on the Fenceline of Industry.Current environmental health reports · 2020Review
- Detecting the Effects of Early-Life Exposures: Why Fecundity Matters.Population research and policy review · 2019Article
- Health and Environmental Justice Implications of Retiring Two Coal-Fired Power Plants in the Southern Front Range Region of Colorado.GeoHealth · 2019Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundFew studies have explored the relationship between air pollution and fertility. We used a natural experiment in California when coal and oil power plants retired to estimate associations with nearby fertility rates.
methodsWe used a difference-in-differences negative binomial model on the incident rate ratio scale to analyze the change in annual fertility rates among California mothers living within 0-5 km and 5-10 km of 8 retired power plants between 2001 and 2011. The difference-in-differences method isolates the portion of the pre- versus post-retirement contrast in the 0-5 km and 5-10 km bins, respectively, that is due to retirement rather than secular trends. We controlled for secular trends with mothers living 10-20 km away. Adjusted models included fixed effects for power plant, proportion Hispanic, Black, high school educated, and aged > 30 years mothers, and neighborhood poverty and educational attainment.
resultsAnalyses included 58,909 live births. In adjusted models, we estimated that after power plant retirement annual fertility rates per 1000 women aged 15-44 years increased by 8 births within 5 km and 2 births within 5-10 km of power plants, corresponding to incident rate ratios of 1.2 (95% CI: 1.1-1.4) and 1.1 (95% CI: 1.0-1.2), respectively. We implemented a negative exposure control by randomly selecting power plants that did not retire and repeating our analysis with those locations using the retirement dates from original 8 power plants. There was no association, suggesting that statewide temporal trends may not account for results.
conclusionsFertility rates among nearby populations appeared to increase after coal and oil power plant retirements. Our study design limited the possibility that our findings resulted from temporal trends or changes in population composition. These results require confirmation in other populations, given known methodological limitations of ecologic study designs.
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