Pregnant women exposed to too much nitrate in their drinking water are at greater risk of giving birth prematurely, according to a new study of more than 1.4 million California births.
Agricultural runoff containing fertilizer and animal waste can greatly increase the nitrate level in groundwater, which naturally contains a low level of the chemical.
“We found that higher concentrations of nitrate in drinking water during pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of spontaneous preterm birth, even at nitrate concentrations below the federal regulatory limit,” says Allison Sherris, a graduate student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University. “That was surprising.”
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Flood risk’s impact on home values
Buyer beware: Single-family homes in floodplains – almost 4 million U.S. homes – are overvalued by nearly $44 billion collectively, or $11,526 per house on average, according to a new Stanford University-led study. Published in
Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, the study suggests that unaware buyers and inadequate disclosure laws drive up financial risks that could destabilize the real estate market. The threat is likely to grow as climate change drives more frequent extreme weather.
“The overvaluation we find is really concerning, especially given the increases in climate risk that are coming our way,” said study lead author Miyuki Hino, who was a PhD student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources in Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth) at the time of the research and is now an assistant professor in the University of North Carolina at Chape
The overvaluation we find is really concerning, especially given the increases in climate risk that are coming our way, said study lead author Miyuki Hino, who was a PhD student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources in Stanford s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth) at the time of the research and is now an assistant professor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill s department of city and regional planning. Improving how we communicate about flooding is an important step in the right direction.
Water hazard
In some states, such as Florida, as many as one in six homes are in floodplains. As more people have built more homes in areas exposed to cyclones, sea-level rise and other inundation hazards, flooding damage costs have skyrocketed. Since 2000, overall flood damages have quadrupled in the U.S.
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