Not only does fracking allegedly pollute the groundwater in areas where companies drill, but it also pollutes the air locally, regionally and globally. This drilling can be a big problem for the health of the inhabitants of the world. Many people may not immediately think that air pollution is an effect of fracking, but that would be wrong. The Natural Resource Defense Counil wrote an issue brief titled “Fracking Fumes: Air Pollution from Hydraulic Fracturing Threatens Public Health and Communities”. It gives a detailed explanation of how the air is affected in local, regional, and global ways, and how that air pollution changes the lives of the people who breathe it. Locally there is exposure to hydrogen sulfide, and toxics including benzene, and toluene. These can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, respiratory and cardiovascular problems. Regionally nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds create a ground level ozone layer that can cause respiratory issues such as asthma, and cardiovascular complications that include cardiac arrhythmia, heart attacks, and strokes. Finally, globally, carbon dioxide and methane emissions warm the earth to an unhealthy amount. Although it might not seem like any of these could affect you or the people around you, it turns out that one in four Americans live within a mile of an oil or gas drilling rig, as per a USA Today article.
There are multiple studies that have showed that there are health risks because of air pollution produced by fracking. The same article on USA Today cites a study done by Environmental Health Perspectives that says that “people living near natural-gas wells were more than twice as likely to report upper-respiratory and skin problems than those farther away.” Although we cannot infer causation from this because it is an observational study not a randomized experiment, these results definitely hold some water. Another one cited in the article says “In Colorado, for example, an evaluation of birth defects in areas with high concentrations of oil and gas activity found that mothers who lived near many oil and gas wells were 30% more likely to have babies with heart defects.” It is hard to think of other factors that would so closely correlate with the results to influence them in the same way. With these studies becoming more prominent it would be hard to say that gas drilling has no connection to the health of the people around where it happens.
The shale boom is having a major effect on the state of air quality in Louisiana. It may not be directly, but with all the new natural gas coming in they need more places to process, and transfer this gas. According to an article on nola.com of the new forty four such projects proposed in the United States almost half of them are in Louisiana. The article continues that “those projects are expected to release up to 68 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year, boosting the state’s emissions by about 30 percent.” This is about equivalent to fifteen more coal plants being built and run in the state, to put in perspective. This is not something that is happening exclusively in Louisiana. There have been many projects approved in the past five years that will allow more than one-hundred seventy-nine million tons of greenhouse gasses to be emitted into the atmosphere. These are a lot of facts that I have just thrown out there, but basically it means there is a ton of air pollution because of the boom in fracking. In this case it is not directly from the process of fracking, but without the drilling there wouldn’t be these effects. In order to process and transfer the gas all of these things need to happen, which further contributes to the pollution.
Though air pollution is not the first thing that a person usually thinks of when effects of fracking come up it is actually a huge issue. Beside the drilling chemicals getting into groundwater the air also gets polluted because just as easily as those chemicals get into the water, they can get into the air. This is not something that can be overlooked as it could have just as catastrophic effects as other types of pollution. This unclean air can cause around a quarter of America major health issues, and that’s just the local problems. The air pollution spreads very quickly and can have such big effects as warming the earth. It doesn’t matter which way fracking is looked at it has to be acknowledged as a serious environmental concern in the United States.
Yeah, fracking is definitely not the best for the environment. It pollutes the water, and I guess I just learned that it pollutes the air as well. However, it lets us reach into untapped oil that would otherwise be impossible to get to, so I still fully support it. One question – is the chemicals that are mixed with water, being pumped into the ground to reach the oil, that are causing the pollution, or the oil itself? I feel like if a better mix of chemicals to blast into the ground can be discovered, we can mitigate a lot of these problems.
Great post, can’t wait to read more of your fracking writing.
Wow I actually did not know the other factors of fracking could be something as big as this. I kind of guessed from the use of cars and other equipment there would be pollution but I did not know from actual fracking. It is also really sad to know that more of those projects are being opened up and will cause even more damage even to human beings more directly.
It’s crazy how people care more about money than the environment. Then again, can’t really blame them because most of us are doing the same things. Leaving the lights on when we’re out of the room or something small are killing the environment, yet we choose to do those things anyways.