The Utah Department of Health has released the results of their study that addressed the reported increase of stillbirths in the Uintah Basin. Jeramie Tubbs is their public information officer and said everyone needs to take some responsibility.
“We need to take accountability for our own health and do what you can within your power to ensure that you have a healthy birth, a healthy baby," Tubbs said. "A lot of the factors that we do have in our area: rates with high smoking moms, young women that can account for some of the placental problems or the low weight.”
Many medical professionals believe it’s related to the pollution from the increased business of the oil and gas industry in recent years. Brian Moench is the president of the Utah Physicians for Healthy Environment and said UDOH is misleading the public.
“If in fact the health department is trying to put the focus on the pregnant mothers themselves, having had an unusual or inexplicable couple of years of bad behavior, we think that’s misplaced," Moench said. "We think that it’s ignoring the hundreds of medical studies that show air pollution affects pregnancy outcome and we’d like to see them take that more seriously as a possible contributor to this problem.”
Tubbs said the UDOH is concerned about the health of the public, but that a proper study takes time.
“Dr. LeFevre who conducted the report with his staff, he did say that oftentimes you will have an anomaly in one year out of six and that could be this sudden rise in still births that were observed," Tubbs said. "That’s why they want to follow up in two years.”
Moench said he supports more research but he contends that the point is not to what extent the problem exists, but that there is a problem.
"We think that’s kind of a bizarre interpretation of this data," Moench said. "And whether or not there was a spike in infant mortality in the area, we do know that there is a high pollution problem in the area. So we think that this spike in infant mortality should be viewed as a reason for figuring out how to reduce the air pollution in the community, which we know is high, and which we know should be reduced regardless because we know there are other significant health consequences from it."
Both parties agree that a healthier public is the goal, but how that will happen is still being debated.