What you probably already know: Air pollution from oil and gas is causing 91,000 early deaths and hundreds of thousands of health issues across the United States every year, with racial and ethnic minorities bearing the brunt of the burden, according to a first-of-its-kind new study. The United States is the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, industries that collectively make up nearly 8% of the national GDP. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts record natural gas consumption and oil production this year, averaging 91.4 billion cubic feet and 13.6 million barrels per day, respectively. But extracting, storing, processing, and consuming these products comes at a steep cost to human health, one that’s not being meted out equitably.
Why? An international cohort of scientists recently published “the first study to quantify national racial and ethnic disparities in exposure and health burden specific to air pollution for each major oil and gas stage.” Using computer models, the authors map pollution from each stage: “upstream” (exploration and extraction); “midstream” (storage and transport); “downstream” (refinement or transformation into petrochemical products); and consumer “end-use.” Each stage creates fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone — pollutants that have all been linked to a myriad of health issues. “What we found was striking: One in five preterm births and adult deaths linked to fine particulate pollution are from oil and gas,” lead author Dr. Karn Vohra says. “Even more concerning is that nearly 90% of new childhood asthma cases tied to nitrogen dioxide pollution were from this sector.” The researchers also found that Black, Asian, Hispanic and Native American populations bear a disproportionately large burden of exposure and health risks, especially in Texas and California.
What it means: The end-use stage accounts for 96% of all health incidents linked to the oil and gas system, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels. The most populated states bear the greatest health burden from all stages, with California and Texas in the lead. Native American and Hispanic groups experience the biggest impact from upstream and midstream stages, while downstream and end-use stages have the greatest toll on Black and Asian groups. While upstream and end-use activities cause more pollution than downstream activities nationwide, members of the Black community experience the greatest relative adverse health impacts from downstream-related pollution, especially in southern Louisiana (aka “Cancer Alley”) and eastern Texas. Racist zoning practices like redlining are largely to blame for these disparities. Air pollution from oil and gas activities in the U.S. is also linked to more than 1,600 early deaths in southern Canada and northern Mexico, collectively.
What happens next: The information aims to provide a clear picture of the health risks and inequities tied to every stage of the oil and gas lifecycle so that policymakers can make informed decisions when considering less-harmful alternatives. “Our study provides yet another compelling case for why we need to accelerate the phase-out of oil and gas production and combustion with hard numbers: hundreds of thousands of children, adults and the elderly in the U.S. could be saved from illnesses and early deaths every year,” said co-author Dr. Ploy Achakulwisut. “We therefore have an imperative to not only urgently transition away from fossil fuels to achieve net-zero emissions to save lives in the long term from climate devastation, but also to save lives and minimize environmental injustices in the near term from air pollution exposure.”
— Story by Cambrie Juarez
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