Public Health and Unconventional Oil and Gas Extraction Including Fracking: Global Lessons from a Scottish Government Review

Abstract

Unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) including fracking for shale gas is underway in North America on a large scale, and in Australia and some other countries. It is viewed as a major source of global energy needs by proponents. Critics consider fracking and UOGE an immediate and long-term threat to global, national, and regional public health and climate. Rarely have governments brought together relatively detailed assessments of direct and indirect public health risks associated with fracking and weighed these against potential benefits to inform a national debate on whether to pursue this energy route. The Scottish government has now done so in a wide-ranging consultation underpinned by a variety of reports on unconventional gas extraction including fracking. This paper analyses the Scottish government approach from inception to conclusion, and from procedures to outcomes. The reports commissioned by the Scottish government include a comprehensive review dedicated specifically to public health as well as reports on climate change, economic impacts, transport, geology, and decommissioning. All these reports are relevant to public health, and taken together offer a comprehensive review of existing evidence. The approach is unique globally when compared with UOGE assessments conducted in the USA, Australia, Canada, and England. The review process builds a useful evidence base although it is not without flaws. The process approach, if not the content, offers a framework that may have merits globally.

Lagging and Flagging: Air Pollution, Shale Gas Exploration and the Interaction of Policy, Science, Ethics and Environmental Justice in England

“…This form of practice contravenes the IAIA acknowledged "duty of care to both present and future generations". Yet shale oil and gas impact assessments fail to consider the global or local public health consequences of using shale energy [105][106][107].…”

“…There is little research on the health effects of ultrafine particles [118,119]. In Scotland, there has been some effort by government to build these concerns into official deliberations on shale exploration, which reflect a more precautionary approach than that adopted by the UK government [107,120]. It is still an open question as to whether the more precautionary approach in Scotland is the product of a policy process receptive to the latest research or whether is reflects a pre-existing political preference of the Scottish government.…”

Looking back and going forward: The concept of the public in public relations theory

“…The set of rules that enables and governs Community Councils is part of Scottish government’s explicit policy on community empowerment (Scottish Government, n.d.). While the policy and its consultation in Scotland was about allowing fracking in the first place (Watterson and Dinan, 2018), Portobello as a community was engaged in this process with a clear understanding that should the technology be allowed, fracking might well take place under their feet (Interview with an organizer, 9 November 2017). Spacial proximity to a possible fracking site is a factor in collective action and formation of the local audience (Doshkin, 2016).…”

Fracking, yacimientos en roca generadora y salud humana: entre la incertidumbre y la precaución

“…Si bien como se citó al inicio, las concentraciones usadas para los aditivos son bajas, y al momento de iniciar su tránsito por la roca se diluyen hasta alcanzar concentraciones permitidas por la ley, es importante controlar que no se autorice el uso en Colombia de los aditivos que por su toxicidad ya han sido prohibidos en otras latitudes. En los últimos diez años estos aditivos se han constituido en el principal foco de debate respecto a la técnica por sus efectos en la salud humana y el medio ambiente 3 , generando estudios que llevaron a la creación de normas rigurosas, en donde se prohibe el uso de algunos químicos y se establecen concentraciones máximas para otros. De esta manera, las mezclas químicas pueden llegar al humano por inhalación aérea, especialmente a los pobladores más cercanos al sitio de perforación en superficie.…”