Hazardous Air Pollutants Associated with Upstream Oil and Natural Gas Development: A Critical Synthesis of Current Peer-Reviewed Literature

Garcia-Gonzales, Diane A.; Shonkoff, Seth B.C.; Hays, Jake; Jerrett, Michael

doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043715

Cited by 79 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…Air pollutants associated with OGD include particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter of <2:5 lm (PM 2:5 ), diesel PM, nitrogen oxides (NO x ), secondary ozone formation, mercury, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) from truck traffic, drilling, hydraulic fracturing, production, and flaring (Allshouse et al 2019;Brantley et al 2015;Colborn et al 2014;Eapi et al 2014;Esswein et al 2014;Franklin et al 2019;Goetz et al 2015;Koss et al 2017;Lan et al 2015;Macey et al 2014;Marrero et al 2016;Maskrey et al 2016;Mellqvist et al 2017;Roy et al 2014;Warneke et al 2014). Additionally, fugitive toxic air contaminants can escape at the wellhead (Garcia-Gonzales et al 2019;Warneke et al 2014) that might affect health near the points of release. Water contaminants associated with OGD include gas-phase hydrocarbons, chemicals mixed in drilling fluids, and naturally occurring salts, metals, and radioactive elements within shale that surface with wastewater along with recovered oil and gas and that can contaminate potable water via leaks and spills or evaporate (Adgate et al 2014;Hildenbrand et al 2015;Long et al 2015a;Vengosh et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Residential Proximity to Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in California: A Retrospective Cohort Study of 2006–2015 Births

Tran

Casey

Cushing

et al. 2020

Environ Health Perspect

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BACKGROUND: Studies suggest associations between oil and gas development (OGD) and adverse birth outcomes, but few epidemiological studies of oil wells or inactive wells exist, and none in California. OBJECTIVE: Our study aimed to investigate the relationship between residential proximity to OGD and birth outcomes in California. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 2,918,089 births to mothers living within 10 km of at least one production well between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2015. We estimated exposure during pregnancy to inactive wells count (no inactive wells, 1 well, 2-5 wells, 6+ wells) and production volume from active wells in barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) (no BOE, 1-100 BOE/day, >100 BOE=day). We used generalized estimating equations to examine associations between overall and trimester-specific OGD exposures and term birth weight (tBW), low birth weight (LBW), preterm birth (PTB), and small for gestational age birth (SGA). We assessed effect modification by urban/rural community type. RESULTS: Adjusted models showed exposure to active OGD was associated with adverse birth outcomes in rural areas; effect estimates in urban areas were close to null. In rural areas, increasing production volume was associated with stronger adverse effect estimates. High (>100 BOE=day) vs. no production throughout pregnancy was associated with increased odds of LBW [

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Residential Proximity to Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in California: A Retrospective Cohort Study of 2006–2015 Births

Tran

Casey

Cushing

et al. 2020

Environ Health Perspect

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“…A further limitation of our study concerns available exposure data. Not all sources of emissions are included in data released by regulatory agencies, and activities such as flaring, off-gassing from contaminated water, and truck traffic may contribute to total emission rates, but are not currently reported [ 47 – 49 ]. In addition, we were limited by available emissions data, which is reported on an annual basis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure assessment of adults living near unconventional oil and natural gas development and reported health symptoms in southwest Pennsylvania, USA

Blinn

Utz

Greiner³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Recent research has shown relationships between health outcomes and residence proximity to unconventional oil and natural gas development (UOGD). The challenge of connecting health outcomes to environmental stressors requires ongoing research with new methodological approaches. We investigated UOGD density and well emissions and their association with symptom reporting by residents of southwest Pennsylvania. A retrospective analysis was conducted on 104 unique, de-identified health assessments completed from 2012-2017 by residents living in proximity to UOGD. A novel approach to comparing estimates of exposure was taken. Generalized linear modeling was used to ascertain the relationship between symptom counts and estimated UOGD exposure, while Threshold Indicator Taxa Analysis (TITAN) was used to identify associations between individual symptoms and estimated UOGD exposure. We used three estimates of exposure: cumulative well density (CWD), inverse distance weighting (IDW) of wells, and annual emission concentrations (AEC) from wells within 5 km of respondents' homes. Taking well emissions reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, an air dispersion and screening model was used to estimate an emissions concentration at residences. When controlling for age, sex, and smoker status, each exposure estimate predicted total number of reported symptoms (CWD, p<0.001; IDW, p<0.001; AEC, p<0.05). Akaike information criterion values revealed that CWD was the better predictor of adverse health symptoms in our sample. Two groups of symptoms (i.e., eyes, ears, nose, throat; neurological and muscular) constituted 50% of reported symptoms across exposures, suggesting these groupings of symptoms may be more likely reported by respondents when UOGD intensity increases. Our results do not confirm that UOGD was the direct cause of the reported symptoms but raise concern about the growing number of wells around residential areas. Our approach presents a novel method of quantifying exposures and relating them to reported health symptoms.

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“…The rapid growth in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in oil and natural gas (ONG) production regions over the past 20 years has implications for water quality, air quality, and climate [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Two important trace gas emissions resulting from ONG production are nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological Drivers of Permian Basin Methane Anomalies Derived from TROPOMI

Crosman

2021

Remote Sensing

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The launch of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S-5P) satellite has revolutionized pollution observations from space. The purpose of this study was to link spatiotemporal variations in TROPOMI methane (CH4) columns to meteorological flow patterns over the Permian Basin, the largest oil and second-largest natural gas producing region in the United States. Over a two-year period (1 December 2018–1 December 2020), the largest average CH4 enhancements were observed near and to the north and west of the primary emission regions. Four case study periods—two with moderate westerly winds associated with passing weather disturbances (8–15 March 2019 and 1 April–10 May 2019) and two other periods dominated by high pressure and low wind speeds (16–23 March 2019 and 24 September–9 October 2020)—were analyzed to better understand meteorological drivers of the variability in CH4. Meteorological observations and analyses combined with TROPOMI observations suggest that weakened transport out of the Basin during low wind speed periods contributes to CH4 enhancements throughout the Basin, while valley and slope flows may explain the observed western expansion of the Permian Basin CH4 anomaly.

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Hazardous Air Pollutants Associated with Upstream Oil and Natural Gas Development: A Critical Synthesis of Current Peer-Reviewed Literature

Cited by 79 publications

References 99 publications

Residential Proximity to Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in California: A Retrospective Cohort Study of 2006–2015 Births

Residential Proximity to Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in California: A Retrospective Cohort Study of 2006–2015 Births

Exposure assessment of adults living near unconventional oil and natural gas development and reported health symptoms in southwest Pennsylvania, USA

Meteorological Drivers of Permian Basin Methane Anomalies Derived from TROPOMI

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