US air pollution from oil and gas causes hundreds of thousands of severe health issues, with Black, Asian, Native American & Hispanic groups the most affected.
As one of the most populous states, Texas experiences some of the greatest total health burdens from all stages of the US oil and gas lifecycle.
A new study published in Science Advances has found that 91,000 premature deaths and hundreds of thousands of health issues across the United States are caused annually by air pollution from the entire oil and gas lifecycle.
The researchers also found that 10,350 pre-term births and 216,000 new cases of childhood asthma per year were attributable to oil and gas air pollution, as well as 1,610 lifetime cancers across the US.
The study was conducted by researchers at UCL, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), George Washington University, and the University of Colorado Boulder. It was led by Dr Karn Vohra, who is now a research fellow at the University of Birmingham, whilst he was at UCL.
The US has one of the largest oil and gas industries in the world, but the health impacts and inequities from its air pollution have been poorly characterised. This is the first study to comprehensively quantify the health impacts of outdoor air pollution across all stages of the US oil and gas lifecycle, from exploration, extraction and drilling (upstream), through to compression, transport and storage (midstream), refinement or transformation into petrochemical products (downstream) and consumer end-use, and analyse the associated racial and ethnic disparities in exposure and health burden.
What we found was striking: one in five preterm births and adult deaths linked to fine particulate pollution are from oil and gas. Even more concerning is that nearly 90% of new childhood asthma cases tied to nitrogen dioxide pollution were from this sector.
The researchers developed a comprehensive inventory of oil and gas air pollution sources, then ran it through a computer model that calculates the complex air chemistry that forms harmful pollutants across the US. They then used these air pollutant concentrations and epidemiological evidence of the relationship between exposure and health risk, with census and health data, to determine multiple adverse health outcomes and racial-ethnic disparities.
Dr Karn Vohra said: “We used a state-of-the-science air quality model to separate air pollution caused by each major stage of the oil and gas lifecycle from other sources of air pollution. This enabled us to work out and compare health outcomes. What we found was striking: one in five preterm births and adult deaths linked to fine particulate pollution are from oil and gas. Even more concerning is that nearly 90% of new childhood asthma cases tied to nitrogen dioxide pollution were from this sector.”
The study found that the final end-use stage overwhelmingly contributes the greatest detrimental health burden, accounting for 96% of total incidents linked to the oil and gas sector.
The five states that experience the greatest total health burden from all stages are amongst the most populated: California, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. When normalised for population, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, New York, California, and Maryland are subject to the greatest health impacts.
Across the US, marginalised ethnic and racial groups face the greatest exposure to air pollution and health impacts across all stages. Native American and Hispanic populations are most affected by upstream and midstream stages, while Black and Asian populations are most affected by downstream and end-use stages.
On a national scale, downstream activities cause far less pollution than upstream and end-use activities, but this stage is the cause for the greatest relative adverse health outcomes for the Black population, particularly in Southern Louisiana (the region known as “Cancer Alley”) and eastern Texas. Black communities face disproportionately severe health outcomes, including higher rates of premature death, preterm births, and childhood asthma, compared to national incidences.
These communities are already aware of this unjust exposure and the disproportionately large health burdens they experience. Our study puts science-backed numbers on just how large these unfair exposures and health outcomes are.
Much of the disparity in exposures and health outcomes stems from a legacy of zoning practices, such as ‘redlining,’ that relegated certain populations to live near pollution hotspots such as industrial areas, large factories, or high-traffic roadways.
Professor Eloise Marais, at UCL and senior author on the paper, said: “It is well known that air pollution from oil and gas activities causes certain communities to experience worse health outcomes. These communities are already aware of this unjust exposure and the disproportionately large health burdens they experience. Our study puts science-backed numbers on just how large these unfair exposures and health outcomes are.”
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 US could be saved from illnesses and early deaths every year.
The researchers were also able to track air pollution across borders. They found that US oil and gas pollution causes 1,170 early deaths in southern Canada and 440 early deaths in northern Mexico.
Dr Ploy Achakulwisut, from SEI and co-author of the paper, said: “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 US could be saved from illnesses and early deaths every year. 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 minimise environmental injustices in the near term from air pollution exposure.”
Supplementary material will be at: https://www.science.org/doi/suppl/10.1126/sciadv. adu2241/suppl_file/sciadv.adu2241_sm.pdf
Tableau dashboard: https://bit.ly/US_oilgas_healthburden_dashboard
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For more information or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact Michael Lucibella, UCL Media Relations. T: +44 (0)75 3941 0389, E: m.lucibella@ucl.ac.uk
Research Fellow
Dr Karn Vohra makes extensive use of multiple data sources to understand the influence of air pollution, determine long-term changes and impacts on human health and inequities at multiple scales.
