The Impact of Gas Flaring on Child Health in Nigeria

Burning off the gas coming out of oil wells—gas flaring—is a common practice in oil-producingdeveloping countries. This economically wasteful and environmentally damaging process occurs becauseinfrastructure has been built with a focus on oil production rather than gas capture and because weak regulations andlimited environmental monitoring make flaring an attractive choice for oil producers. Moreover, gas flaring is harmfulto human health, especially because of pollutants. This research focuses on Nigeria, where over 10 percent of allgas produced is flared and about 2 million people in the Niger Delta live within four kilometres of a gas flare.While several studies from developed countries examine relationships between gas flaring and human (especiallyinfant) health, a lack of data limits what research is possible in developing countries. This paper uses infanthealth data from Demographic Health Surveys, and satellite-detected data on gas flaring to examine theeffects of flaring on disease incidence and infant mortality in oil-producing regions of Nigeria. The findings show astrong positive association between gas flaring and the incidence of respiratory diseases and fever among childrenyounger than five years. The study contributes to the literature measuring the wider cost to society of oil andgas production and adds to a growing body of work using satellite data to understand well-being in places whereconventional data sources are unavailable or unreliable.