Gas fracking: do we understand the potential health consequences?

UNEP has just released a new bulletin on Hydrological fracturing (fracking). The document introduces the topic, and then analyses it in the context of climate change and energy consumption needs.  Among the  aspects addressed there are a few very relevant for HIA and public health practitioners. There is also a bibliography for those interested in further information.

Environmental and health concerns
UG exploitation and production may have unavoidable environmental impacts (see Figure 4). Some risks result if the technology is not used adequately, but others will occur despite proper use of technology (EU, 2011). UG production has the potential to generate considerable GHG emissions, can strain water resources, result in water contamination, may have negative impacts on public health (through air and soil contaminants; noise pollution), on biodiversity (through land clearance), food supply (through competition for land and water resources), as well as on soil (pollution, crusting). The sections below further outline the potential environmental and health impacts

Risk on public health

When occurring in densely populated areas, UG production raises several specific threats to well-being. The most direct concern is the risk of explosion from the construction of new pipelines (Rahm, 2011). Other consequences have a slower onset, such as release of toxic substances into air, soil and water. In Texas, emissions from shale gas operations are being checked for contaminants after blood and urine samples taken from household residents near shale wells revealed that toluene was present in 65% of those tested and xylene present in 53% (Rahm 2011). Both of these chemicals are commonly present in fracking fluid and known for being toxic. The biocide substances which are also contained in fracking fluid, and may be released during surface water leaks, can lead to serious damage to the surrounding habitat (IEA, 2012).
More common nuisances include noise pollution, primarily associated with drilling and fracking (which is a non-stop operation over several weeks), but also from truck transport (Rahm, 2011).
Fracturing fluid consists of large amounts of water mixed with chemicals and sand. In most countries the chemicals used in fracking fluid are considered trade secrets (Zoback et al., 2010). If companies are not required to publicly disclose the full list of chemicals used, assessing potential short- and long-term impacts on public health will be difficult. Colborn and others (2011) compiled a list of products (about 1000) used in fracking fluid. They carried out literature review on 353 chemicals and found that "more than 75% of the chemicals could affect the skin, eyes, and other sensory organs, and the respiratory and gastrointestinal systems. Approximately 40–50% could affect the brain/nervous system, immune and cardiovascular systems, and the kidneys; 37% could affect the endocrine system; and 25% could cause cancer and mutations." (Colborn et al., 2011).
Nonylphenol, for example, which is commonly used in fracking fluid, mimics estrogen, and can cause the feminization of fish, even at concentrations not detected by normal monitoring of the fluid (NYS-WRI, 2011). The consequence of the feminization of fish is an imbalance between male and female populations, resulting in a deficit of fertilization and potentially leading to a rapid decline of these fish populations.

Pollution need to be considered an urgency as other health threats

“The World’s Worst Pollution Problems” Assessing Health Risks at Hazardous Waste Sites report has just been releases and reveals that close to 125 million people are at risk from toxic pollution across 49 low to middle-income countries. Also, the report, for the first time estimates the total global burden of disease attributed to toxic pollution from industrial sites in these countries. Blacksmith Institute found that the public health impact of industrial pollutants, measured in DALYs, is the same or higher than some of the most dangerous diseases worldwide. Below is a comparison of the DALYs for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to the DALYs from industrial pollutants.

Industrial Pollutants	17.147.600
Tuberculosis	25.041.000
HIV/AIDS	28.933.000
Malaria	14.252.000

The substances included are lead, chromium, mercury, and asbestos. The Top Ten industrial sources are: lead-acid battery recycling, lead smelting, mining and ore processing, tanneries, industrial and municipal dump sites, industrial estates, artisanal gold mining, product and chemical manufacturing, and the dye industry.

The lancet editorial rightly call the international health community to become more active in tackling and addressing hazardous substance pollution to achieve healthy and sustainable development worldwide.

Towards noiseless turbines?

At the IAIA conference in Portugal we hosted a session on Community Responses to New Energy Sources. There were very interesting case studies of wind turbine projects in Australia and in the Netherlands (see the posts of May on this blog).

Wind energy is a constantly growing source of alternative energy worldwide and while it is accepted as green alternative to the usual coal and fossil fuels, local communities are not so supportive of wind parks in their backyard. Indeed deciding where to place wind turbines is a major challenge in the decision making process and one of the complaints often made by local inhabitants is noise.

A recent study reviews recent advances in the area of noise pollution from wind turbines. “To date, there have been many different noise control studies. While there are many different sources of noise, the main one is aerodynamic noise. The largest contributor to aerodynamic noise comes from the trailing edge of wind turbine blades. The aim of this paper is to critically analyse and compare the different methods currently being implemented and investigated to reduce noise production from wind turbines, with a focus on the noise generated from the trailing edge.”

The discussion is not over and community acceptance of new energy will remain a topic at the next conference in Calgary

The Prosperity of Cities is closely linked to a notion of development which include equity and environmental sustainability

Development actors need to explore a more inclusive notion of prosperity and development, finds new UN-Habitat report The State of the World’s Cities 2012/2013: The Prosperity of Cities.

According to the report, there is a need for a shift in attention around the world in favour of a MORE ROBUST NOTION OF DEVELOPMENT – one that looks beyond the narrow domain of economic growth that has dominated ill-balanced policy agendas over the last decades, and includes other vital dimensions such as quality of life, adequate infrastructures, equity and environmental sustainability.

“In this Report, UN-Habitat advocates for a new type of city – the city of the 21st century – that is a „good‟, people centred city,” said Dr Joan Clos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat.

“The cities of the future should be ones that are capable of integrating the tangible and more intangible aspects of prosperity, in the process shedding off the inefficient, unsustainable forms and functionalities of the city of the previous century or so and becoming the engine rooms of growth and development.”

The CITY OF THE 21ST CENTURY:

·         Reduces disaster risks and vulnerabilities for the poor and build resilience to adverse forces of nature.

·         Creates harmony between the five dimensions of prosperity and enhances the prospects for a better future.

·         Stimulates local job creation, promotes social diversity, maintains a sustainable environment and recognizes the importance of public spaces.

·         Comes with a change of pace, profile and urban functions and provides the social, political and economic conditions of prosperity.

The UNISDR report "Making Cities Resilient 2012 -- My city is getting ready! A global snapshot of how local governments reduce disaster risk" complements UN-HABITAT’s findings. Margareta Wahlström, Head, UNISDR, said that several elements used by UN-HABITAT to assess city prosperity, such as equity and good governance, also bolster disaster resilience. "The findings from our own studies on cities show that low socio-economic development need not necessarily limit all resilience-building activities, especially when the central government and multilateral agencies work together to ensure the right people come together to take action," said Wahlström said

Ghana Health Service recruits HIA and other health experts for a consultancy

The Ghana Health Service will conduct a strategic Health Impact Assessment (sHIA) of the country’s oil and gas development plan. The objectives of the sHIA are to:

• Generate a comprehensive review of human risks associated with different development scenarios for oil and gas sector, for example in the context of chemical spills, changes in communicable disease patterns, workplace based accidents and injuries etc.;

• Identify which interventions and response capacities would be needed to address those issues, including so as to not overwhelm existing health systems capacities;

• Establish a population health baseline, framework for use in monitoring and reporting of health impacts (both positive and negative) generated as a result of the growth of the petroleum industry;

• Develop Ghana’s institutional capacity for the use of HIA tools and methods for the eventual application to other sector policies, plans and projects, for example in mining, energy or agriculture.

The Ghana Health Service now invites eligible Consultants (Health Impact Assessment Specialists, Occupational Health and Safety Specialists and Chemical Safety Specialists) to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested Consultants should provide information indicating they are qualified to perform the services (brochures, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff, curriculum vitae etc) Consultants may associate to enhance their qualifications.

A consultant will be selected in accordance with the procedures set out in the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) of the Republic of Ghana.

Interested consultants may obtain further information at the address below from 08.00hrs to 17.00 hrs GMT.

Expressions of interest must be delivered to the address below on or before 14.00 hrs GMT, on September 03, 2012              

THE PROCUREMENT DEPARTMENT

GHANA HEALTH SERVICE

LIMB FITTING CENTRE, TEMA STATION

NEAR RENT CONTROL

P.M.B. MINISTRIES

Tel:  (233) 0302 687853

Fax:  (233) 0302 687853 (for queries only)

E-mail: procurement@ghsmail.org

Shale gas: an updated assessment of environmental and climate change impacts

Researchers at Tyndall Manchester, in partnership with The Co-operative, have updated their assessment of the environmental impact of shale gas in light of new developments in the UK. The report, released in November 2011, updates their January 2011 work. It finds that in the absence of a stringent global emissions cap, large-scale extraction of shale gas cannot be reconciled with the commitments enshrined in the latest international climate change agreement, the Copenhagen Accord (2009).
The report has also an interesting chapter on human health and one of the main findings of this work is that there is a paucity of information on which to base a quantified assessment of environmental and human health risk.
The report provides a list of key risks and impacts of shale gas and shale gas processes and development. Those can be divided as follows:
 contamination of groundwater by fracturing fluids or mobilised contaminants arising from:
o wellbore/casing failure; and/or
o subsurface migration;
 contamination of land and surface water, and potentially groundwater via surface route, arising from:
o spillage of fracturing additives; and
o spillage/tank rupture/storm water overflow from liquid waste storage, lagoons/pits containing cuttings/drilling mud or flowback fluid;
 water consumption/abstraction;
 wastewater storage, transport and treatment;
 land and landscape impacts from;
o drill rig and well pad
o storage ponds or tanks
o access roads
 impacts arising during construction and pre-production:
o noise/light pollution during well drilling/completion;
o local traffic impacts;
 seismic impacts

Breast Cancer and the Environment: a life course approach

The US Institute of Medicine (IOM) has published a review of the current evidence on breast cancer and the environment. 

Overall, the IOM finds that major advances have been made in understanding breast cancer and its risk factors, but more needs to be learned about its causes and how to prevent it. The report urges a life-course approach to studying breast cancer because new information suggests that women and girls might be more susceptible to some risk factors during certain life stages.

The committee defined “environment” broadly, and reviewed evidence on a range of factors women encounter in their daily lives. 

Of the environmental factors reviewed, those with the most consistent evidence of a link with increased breast cancer risk included ionizing radiation, combination estrogen-progestin hormone therapy, and greater postmenopausal weight. 

More physical activity was linked to reduced risk. But for many other factors, the evidence from human studies is more limited, contradictory, or absent.
The IOM concludes that women may have some opportunities to reduce their risk of breast cancer through personal actions, such as avoiding unnecessary medical radiation throughout life, avoiding use of estrogen –progestin hormone therapy, avoiding smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, increasing physical activity, and, for postmenopausal breast cancer, minimizing weight gain. In addition to applying a life-course approach to studies of breast cancer, research recommendations include developing improved tools for epidemiologic research and testing of chemicals and other substances, developing effective preventive interventions, developing better approaches to modeling breast cancer risks, and improving communication about breast cancer risks. Questions about the topics addressed in the report are explored in the Questions and Answers booklet.

Click here to go to download the report from the IOM website.

Are We Building Competitive and Liveable Cities?

 A UN report providing guidelines for developing eco-efficient and socially inclusive infrastructure.

The 6 strategic principles to ensure eco-effi cient and inclusive outcomes in the process of planning and developing urban infrastructure are:

• Lead the change: put sustainable urban infrastructure on top of your agenda.
• Bridge the gap: link short-term goals to long-term vision.
• Link sector and actors: integrate across sectors and between institutions.
• Recognize the value of sustainable infrastructure: consider all values (monetary and not) of sustainable infrastructure.
• Turn “green” into a business opportunity: build the business case for eco-effi cient solutions.
• Build the city for people together with the people: sustainable outcomes can be achieved only through broad-based participation. 

Click here to download the report.

I liked the diagrams and case studies in this report.

Human Rights and the Environment

An interesting post on the SSPP Blog. Click here to check out the full blog

Human Rights and the Environment: What's the connection?

  

"...The question of whether and how to apply human rights to the environment is far from academic. An international rule of law has begun to emerge, if intermittently and painfully, over the last century. More recently, environmental destruction has become an international issue, most prominently regarding climate change but also regarding air and water pollution crossing boundaries, toxic substances shipped around the world, and biodiversity shrinkage. Indeed, there is something of a race going on between international instruments to preserve the environment (for the sake of humanity, if not for the ecosystems themselves) and the tide of environmental degradation. In this race, degradation is ahead and widening its lead. The United Nations is a frail, contentious institution with power allocated asymmetrically, but it’s all we’ve got. The emerging concept that all humans have rights to a safe, clean, healthy, supportive environment may be one key in the quest for sustainability."

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To further explore sustainability, increase scientific discovery, and enhance scholarly communication, read the Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy open access ejournal and visit the free Researcher's Toolkit.