Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40938976›Full record

ArticleScience advances2025

Investigating the Aliso Canyon gas blowout disaster and adverse birth outcomes: A quasiexperimental approach.

Kimberly C Paul, John Molitor, Yu Yu, Christina Batteate, Massimo Stafoggia, Sanjali Mitra, Qi Meng, Diane Garcia-Gonzales, Myles Cockburn, David Eisenman and 4 more

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

14 authors.

Kimberly C PaulDepartment of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4476-2352
John MolitorOregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9583-6534
Yu YuUCLA Center for Health Policy Research, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-8717-0245
Christina BatteateDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4289-3148
Massimo StafoggiaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-2843-2908
Sanjali MitraDepartment of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0009-0004-4473-0643
Qi MengDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4459-8668
Diane Garcia-GonzalesDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Myles CockburnDepartment of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
David EisenmanDivision of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4320-1331
Sudipto BanerjeeDepartment of Biostatistics, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-2239-208X
Honghu LiuSection of Public and Population Health, School of Dentistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Michael JerrettDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4121-0587
Beate RitzDepartment of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-6976-7339

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

On 23 October 2015, operators at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage field in Northern Los Angeles reported an uncontrolled natural gas leak. The blowout persisted for 112 days, releasing ~109,000 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere. Elevated air toxics and fine particle pollutant levels were also measured in nearby communities. We used California's birth records and a quasiexperimental design to assess whether pregnant women living in affected communities during the disaster experienced more adverse birth outcomes than expected. Overall, the prevalence of low birthweight and term low birthweight were 45 to 100% higher than expected among women living in the affected communities whose late pregnancy overlapped with the blowout. The strongest effects were observed among women living directly south and southwest of the facility. Furthermore, we observed a dose-response effect, where the odds of low birthweight were highest among women living closest to the well and attenuated out.

Indexed as

DisastersNatural GasPregnancy OutcomeAdultAir PollutantsFemaleHumansInfant, Low Birth WeightInfant, NewbornMaternal ExposurePregnancyAir PollutantsNatural Gas

Identifiers

PMID40938976
PMCPMC12428921

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.