This is the first study that uses a direct measure of skyglow, an important aspect of light pollution, to examine its impact on infant health at birth. We find evidence of reduced birth weight, shortened gestational length and even preterm births. Specifically, increased nighttime brightness, characterized by being able to see only one-third to one-fourth of the stars that are visible in the absence of artificial light, is associated with an increase in the likelihood of a preterm birth by as much as 12.8 percent, or an increase of approximately 45,000 preterm births nationwide annually. Our findings add to the literature on the impact of in utero and early-life exposure to pollution, which thus far has focused primarily on air pollution. The unique feature of our identification strategy to determine a causal effect is the application of Walker's Law in physics, which provides a scientific basis to estimate skyglow. We use estimated skyglow as an instrumental variable to address the endogeneity problem associated with the skyglow variable. In addition, our study shows that increased skyglow is associated with less sleep, indicating a likely biological mechanism that links sleep deprivation to light-pollution induced circadian disruption. This result, combined with the literature on the adverse effects of sleep disorders, completes the causal chain underlying our finding on the adverse health impact of skyglow. Our study has important policy implications for current installation of LED streetlights in many U.S. municipalities, highlighting the necessity of minimizing skyglow contributed by streetlights.

中文翻译：

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光污染、睡眠剥夺和婴儿出生时的健康

这是第一项使用直接测量天辉（光污染的一个重要方面）来检查其对婴儿出生时健康影响的研究。我们发现了出生体重减轻、孕期缩短甚至早产的证据。具体来说，增加夜间亮度，其特点是在没有人造光的情况下只能看到三分之一到四分之一的星星，这与早产的可能性增加高达 12.8 相关。 %，即全国每年大约增加 45,000 名早产儿。我们的发现增加了关于子宫内和生命早期暴露于污染的影响的文献，迄今为止，这些文献主要集中在空气污染上。我们确定因果效应的识别策略的独特之处在于沃克定律在物理学中的应用，这为估计天辉提供了科学依据。我们使用估计的skyglow 作为工具变量来解决与skyglow 变量相关的内生性问题。此外，我们的研究表明，天光增加与睡眠减少有关，这表明可能存在将睡眠剥夺与光污染引起的昼夜节律紊乱联系起来的生物学机制。这一结果与关于睡眠障碍不利影响的文献相结合，完善了我们关于 Skyglow 对健康不利影响的发现背后的因果链。我们的研究对当前美国许多城市安装 LED 路灯具有重要的政策意义，