All-age hospitalization rates in coal seam gas areas in Queensland, Australia, 1995–2011

Abstract

BackgroundUnconventional natural gas development (UNGD) is expanding globally, with Australia expanding development in the form of coal seam gas (CSG). Residents and other interest groups have voiced concerns about the potential environmental and health impacts related to CSG. This paper compares objective health outcomes from three study areas in Queensland, Australia to examine potential environmentally-related health impacts.MethodsThree study areas were selected in an ecologic study design: a CSG area, a coal mining area, and a rural/agricultural area. Admitted patient data, as well as population data and additional factors, were obtained for each calendar year from 1995 through 2011 to calculate all-age hospitalization rates and age-standardized rates in each of these areas. The three areas were compared using negative binomial regression analyses (unadjusted and adjusted models) to examine increases over time of hospitalization rates grouped by primary diagnosis (19 ICD chapters), with rate ratios serving to compare the within-area regression slopes between the areas.ResultsThe CSG area did not have significant increases in all-cause hospitalization rates over time for all-ages compared to the coal and rural study areas in adjusted models (RR: 1.02, 95 % CI: 1.00–1.04 as compared to the coal mining area; RR: 1.01, 95 % CI: 0.99–1.04 as compared to the rural area). While the CSG area did not show significant increases in specific hospitalization rates compared to both the coal mining and rural areas for any ICD chapters in the adjusted models, the CSG area showed increases in hospitalization rates compared only to the rural area for neoplasms (RR: 1.09, 95 % CI: 1.02–1.16) and blood/immune diseases (RR: 1.14, 95 % CI: 1.02–1.27).ConclusionsThis exploratory study of all-age hospitalization rates for three study areas in Queensland suggests that certain hospital admissions rates increased more quickly in the CSG study area than in other study areas, particularly the rural area, after adjusting for key sociodemographic factors. These findings are an important first step in identifying potential health impacts of CSG in the Australian context and serve to generate hypotheses for future studies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2787-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Exposures and Health Risks from Volatile Organic Compounds in Communities Located near Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Activities in Colorado (U.S.A.)

“…In addition to hazard identification studies, a growing body of population based epidemiological studies have investigated associations between living near OG operations and the potential for certain health effects, such as adverse birth outcomes, upper and lower respiratory effects, cancer, and a variety of other health outcomes [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Although these epidemiological studies provide important insights into the potential health effects of at risk populations and assist in prioritizing public health research, one of the main limitations of these studies is the lack of direct quantification of chemical exposures to the observed population.…”

Is Increasing Coal Seam Gas Well Development Activity Associated with Increasing Hospitalisation Rates in Queensland, Australia? An Exploratory Analysis 1995–2011

“…Additionally, age-specific studies found increasing “Blood/immune” disease admission rates in a CSG study area compared to the other study areas and decreasing rates for one child/adolescent age group [20,21]. …”

“…Rates increased for some health outcomes (e.g., “Blood/immune” and “Respiratory”) and age groups (e.g., 0–4, 5–9, 10–14, and 20–34 year old) in the CSG area compared to the other study areas [19,20,21]. This paper focuses solely on the CSG study area to examine whether changes in hospitalisation rates for residents of this area vary over time as a function of CSG development activity (e.g., construction, drilling of wells, etc.…”

Examination of Child and Adolescent Hospital Admission Rates in Queensland, Australia, 1995–2011: A Comparison of Coal Seam Gas, Coal Mining, and Rural Areas

“…Due to the lack of UNGD and health studies present when this study was designed and conducted, this study was exploratory and examined a range of health outcomes to generate hypotheses for future work that may relate to the putative exposures described above. Previous Australian studies found increased hospitalisation rates for neoplasms and blood/immune diseases for people living in CSG areas compared to a rural/agricultural area and increased hospitalisation rates for congenital anomalies for the CSG area compared to a coal mining area (Werner et al 2016a , b ). This exploratory analysis thus builds on those previous Australian studies to examine age-specific hospitalisation rates for children and adolescents aged 0–19 years old in a CSG study area compared to two other study areas (coal mining and rural/agricultural) in Queensland over the period 1995–2011.…”