Oil and gas production is one of the largest emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas and a significant contributor of air pollution emissions. While research on methane emissions from oil and gas production has grown rapidly, there is comparatively limited information on the distribution of impacts of this sector on air quality and associated health impacts. Understanding the contribution of air quality and health impacts of oil and gas can be useful for designing mitigation strategies. Here we assess air quality and human health impacts associated with ozone, fine particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide from the oil and gas sector in the US in 2016, and compare this impact with that of the associated methane emissions. We find that air pollution in 2016 from the oil and gas sector in the US resulted in 410 000 asthma exacerbations, 2200 new cases of childhood asthma and 7500 excess deaths, with $77 billion in total health impacts. NO2 was the highest contributor to health impacts (37%) followed by ozone (35%), and then PM2.5 (28%). When monetized, these air quality health impacts of oil and gas production exceeded estimated climate impact costs from methane leakage by a factor of 3. These impacts add to the total life cycle impacts of oil and gas, and represent potential additional health benefits of strategies that reduce consumption of oil and gas. Policies to reduce oil and gas production emissions will lead to additional and significant health benefits from co-pollutant reductions that are not currently quantified or monetized.

In 2016, air pollution from oil & gas (O&G) production in the U.S. resulted in 7,500 (95% CI: 4,500 - 12,000) excess deaths among many other health impacts, valued at $77 billion ($2016 USD) (95% CI: $27 billion - $170 billion). An ambitious methane reduction policy in 2028 would result in 1,400 (820 - 2,300) deaths compared to 2028 business as usual, while other policies would have modest effects. Regions without O&G activity experienced impact from the sector and benefits from emissions reductions. On a per ton basis, the health co-benefits per methane reduction from each policy were ~5x lower than health co-impacts from the whole production sector, since policies only apply to specific O&G production processes. We show that there are still substantial health co-benefits to policies that reduce methane emissions, however the health co-benefits can be enhanced if emissions reduction policies cover more components of O&G production.

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