“Our data show that it is important to include air pollution in the national dialogue on natural gas development that has focused largely on water exposures to hydraulic fracturing,” said Lisa McKenzie, Ph.D., MPH, lead author of a new report and research associate at the Colorado School of Public Health.
The report, based on three years of monitoring, found a number of potentially toxic petroleum hydrocarbons in the air near the wells including benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene. Benzene is a well known carcinogen.
The report, which looked at those living within a half-mile from the wells, comes in response to the rapid expansion of natural gas development in rural Garfield County, in western Colorado. McKenzie analyzed ambient air sample data collected from monitoring stations by the Garfield County Department of Public Health and Olsson Associates Inc. She used standard EPA methodology to estimate non-cancer health impacts and excess lifetime cancer risks for hydrocarbon exposure.
The report concludes that health risks are greater for people living closest to wells and urges a reduction in those air emissions. Future studies are warranted and should include collection of area, residential and personal exposure data where wells are operating. Additional studies should also examine the toxicity of other hydrocarbons associated with natural gas development.
This study is entitled “Human Health Risk Assessment of Air Emissions from Development of Unconventional Natural Gas Resources.” It has been accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment.
See also the slide presentation by John Adgate, Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Colorado. It is entitled “Air Pollution Exposure and Risk Near Unconventional Natural Gas Drill Sites: Example from Garfield County, Colorado.”
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