Morello-Frosch on lower birthweights of babies born following 2003 wildfires
Babies born to women pregnant during wildfires in Southern California in 2003 tended to have slightly lower birthweights than babies born to women pregnant in the same area at other times, according to a recently released study out of UC Berkeley.
The study, published in the September 2012 issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, examined data on births of babies born to women living in the South Coast Air Basin who were pregnant during this period as well as data for babies from the same area born before and after October 2003. The South Coast Air Basin includes Orange County as well as parts of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Smoke from a series of wildfires that destroyed more than 750,000 acres of forest blanketed the area in late October 2003, according to the study.
Rachel Morello-Frosch, one of the study’s authors and a campus associate professor in the department of environmental science, policy and management, said the study was prompted in part by the increasing frequency of wildfires in western regions, including California.
