"Proposed EPA methane limits may help curtail 7,500 yearly deaths from oil and gas production sites."

"As the nation’s oil and gas output reaches record highs, new research shows that the harms from this boom go well beyond cranking up global temperatures.

According to the study, published in May in Environmental Health Research, air pollution from fossil fuel production alone kills 7,500 people a year in the U.S., while exacerbating 420,000 existing asthma cases and triggering 2,200 new incidences of childhood asthma. Health damages from the three air pollutants studied — ozone, nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter — carry an annual price tag of $77 billion.

Past research into the health risks of oil and gas has mainly looked at major combustion sources such as power plants and motor vehicles, Jonathan Buonocore, a public health researcher at Boston University and the study’s lead author, told Environmental Health News (EHN). “Nobody's looked at the health impacts of extraction,” he said. “So I decided to do that, and lo and behold, they weren't small.”"

Allison Guy reports for Environmental Health News July 13, 2023. [2]