Scientists studying the health effects of one of the largest blowouts of natural gas in U.S. history just confirmed what residents long suspected: the massive release of fossil gas carried serious health risks.

On October 23, 2015, employees of SoCalGas discovered a leak in a well at the utility’s Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility, about 25 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Billowing clouds of toxic gases and the climate super-pollutant methane filled the air for nearly four months as SoCalGas workers tried to fix the leak in a pipe hundreds of feet underground.

Pregnant women who lived within 6 miles of the uncontrolled emissions during their final trimester had up to a 50 percent higher chance of having low birth weight babies than normal, researchers at the University of Cal

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