A new peer-reviewed study on the health impacts of pollution from Alberta’s oil and gas sector has found the odds of having negative respiratory and cardiovascular health outcomes increase by nine to 21 per cent, depending on the number of oil and gas wells a person lives near.

Although there are known effects on health from air pollution, the lead author of the study said there’s been a lack of research in Canada compared to that in the U.S. on impacts from the oil and gas industry.

“Now we can put a number … on it,” said Martin Lavoie, with St. Francis Xavier University’s FluxLab team of environmental science researchers in Antigonish, N.S.