Exposures and Health Risks from Volatile Organic Compounds in Communities Located near Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Activities in Colorado (U.S.A.)

Abstract

The study objective was to use a preliminary risk based framework to evaluate the sufficiency of existing air data to answer an important public health question in Colorado: Do volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted into the air from oil and gas (OG) operations result in exposures to Coloradoans living at or greater than current state setback distances (500 feet) from OG operations at levels that may be harmful to their health? We identified 56 VOCs emitted from OG operations in Colorado and compiled 47 existing air monitoring datasets that measured these VOCs in 34 locations across OG regions. From these data, we estimated acute and chronic exposures and compared these exposures to health guideline levels using maximum and mean air concentrations. Acute and chronic non-cancer hazard quotients were below one for all individual VOCs. Hazard indices combining exposures for all VOCs were slightly above one. Lifetime excess cancer risk estimates for benzene were between 1.0 × 10−5–3.6 × 10−5 and ethylbenzene was 7.3 × 10−6. This evaluation identified a small sub-set of VOCs, including benzene and n-nonane, which should be prioritized for additional exposure characterization in site-specific studies that collect comprehensive time-series measurements of community scale exposures to better assess community exposures.

Air quality impacts from oil and natural gas development in Colorado

“…Air quality impacts from oil and natural gas development in Colorado of one in a million for people living nearest to O&NG sites [McKenzie et al, 2012;McMullin et al, 2018;Holder et al, 2019]. Associations between proximity to O&NG sites and health effects, including congenital heart defects, childhood leukemia, asthma, low birth weight, and preterm births have been reported [HEI, 2019].…”

Synthesis and health-based evaluation of ambient air monitoring data for the Marcellus Shale region

“…Although overall there were few exceedances of acute HBACVs, it is important to note the relative scarcity of high-resolution air monitoring data for each of the air pollutants of interest that are necessary for better characterizing the timing, frequency, and maximum-impact locations of short-term episodic air quality impacts from OGD operations. As discussed by McMullin et al (2018), a number of dynamic factors are expected to contribute to variability in short-term air quality impacts from OGD operations (e.g., episodic emissions, local-scale meteorological conditions, operator-specific processes, different durations of processes) and complicate the extrapolation of the available body of high-resolution measurements to other time periods and sites. It is encouraging that Marcellus Shale air quality studies are increasingly collecting highresolution data, and that most of these data are below levels of health concern; but more data are needed to confirm that measurements are capturing the variability in short-term air quality impacts that may arise from the various OGD-related air emissions sources, and to identify whether specific activities or phases of operation may contribute to short-term episodic air quality impacts of potential health concern.…”

“…Recent integrative assessments have been conducted for other shale plays (e.g., for the Barnett Shale region in Texas [Bunch et al 2014] and the Niobrara Shale region in Colorado [CDPHE 2017;McMullin et al 2018;McKenzie et al 2018]), but we are not aware of such a broad assessment of air quality data for the Marcellus Shale region, despite a substantial increase in the amount of ambient air monitoring data collected nearby to Marcellus Shale development activities. Given that the available air quality data are currently scattered among different databases and studies, the objective of this assessment was thus to assemble the body of data and provide an integrative screening-level assessment of its implications for air-related public health impacts of OGD activities in the Marcellus Shale region.…”

“…These include both criteria air pollutants (fine particulate matter [PM 2.5 ], nitrogen dioxide [NO 2 ], sulfur dioxide [SO 2 ]), U.S. EPA hazardous air pollutants (HAPs; acetaldehyde, benzene, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, n-hexane, toluene, and xylenes), and hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S). Some of the few available quantitative risk assessments conducted for shale play regions have reported findings suggesting that these air pollutants may be associated with the greatest potential for human health risks (CDPHE 2017;McKenzie et al 2018McKenzie et al , 2012McMullin et al 2018). We did not include the major natural gas constituents (methane, ethane, propane, butane) in our assessment because they are of low direct toxicity to humans (Goldstein et al 2014;McKee et al 2014).…”

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

“…Efectos tóxicos del fracking. Las mezclas químicas usadas como aditivos en el fracking pueden ser tóxicas para el ser humano 8,9 , tal cual se indica por análisis de los 105 aditivos más usados en Canadá 10 . 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.…”