AI’s toxic footprint: Are data centers driving cancer and miscarriage rates up?
Industry Buzz
The pollutants emitted from these power plants [can] can lead to respiratory, cardiovascular issues, even cognitive decline. We have research that shows individuals living near these pollutants [see] an increased risk for Alzheimer's... The public health implications are huge.
—Erin Shirley Orey, DrPH
Data centers are the backbone of cloud computing and AI—but they operate at an industrial scale, using enormous amounts of energy and water. Now, a growing body of investigative reporting is asking a provocative question: Could the environmental footprint of data centers be intersecting with community health in ways clinicians can’t afford to ignore?
What investigations reveal
The most detailed public coverage comes from a Rolling Stone investigation with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, focusing on eastern Oregon’s Morrow and Umatilla counties, where multiple Amazon data centers operate alongside intensive agriculture.[] Investigative reporting suggests nitrate levels in local groundwater wells have climbed to 70 parts per million (ppm) or higher, well above Oregon’s 7 ppm legal limit and the US federal standard of 10 ppm.
These elevated levels are linked to increased reports of rare cancers and miscarriages in local residents. This narrative frames the data centers as exacerbating a long-standing contamination issue by altering groundwater dynamics and recycling nitrate-laden water.[]
Residents and advocates draw parallels to historic environmental health crises such as in Flint, MI. Kristin Ostrom, executive director of Oregon Rural Action, told reporters that the communities facing these risks are ones that have limited political influence and may not fully understand the hazards related to exposure.[]
Corporate response is fundamentally different. An Amazon spokesperson stated that the story was “misleading and inaccurate."[] “The volume of water our facilities use and return represents only a very small fraction of the overall water system — not enough to have any meaningful impact on water quality,” the source adds.[]
The pollutants emitted from these power plants [can] can lead to respiratory, cardiovascular issues, even cognitive decline. We have research that shows individuals living near these pollutants [see] an increased risk for Alzheimer's... The public health implications are huge.
—Erin Shirley Orey, DrPH
What the evidence does and does not show
At present, the association between the water quality in Oregon and adverse health outcomes is based on community observations and investigative reporting. So far, no peer-reviewed epidemiological study has demonstrated that data center operations cause cancer or miscarriages.
Mechanistically, nitrates in drinking water are a recognized public health concern.[] Elevated nitrate exposure has been linked to methemoglobinemia in infants (blue baby syndrome) and has been investigated as a potential risk factor for various cancers in observational studies. Regulatory agencies set limits on nitrates precisely because of these risks. However, linking facility water usage to specific health outcomes requires careful exposure assessment, dose quantification, and confounder control, none of which are yet present in the public literature.
Independent systematic reviews note that residential proximity to environmental hazards, including polluted water and industrial sites, is associated with adverse reproductive and cancer outcomes when confounders are carefully accounted for.[]
Other environmental factors connected with data centers also warrant clinical awareness:
Air pollution and particulate matter: Models suggest expanding data centers could contribute to local air pollutant emissions through energy production and backup generators; such air pollutants are established risk factors for respiratory disease and cancer.[]
Water resource stress: Data centers require massive water withdrawals for cooling, which could alter local aquifer dynamics and interact with existing contamination.[]
At present, policy and research gaps remain. Until enough evidence exists, clinicians should integrate environmental exposure assessment into patient histories and support systematic investigation of community concerns.
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