Natural gas flaring may be source of respiratory disease

The paper, recently published in the Journal of Public Economics, examines the burning of natural gas by-products from crude oil extraction in North Dakota from 2007 to 2015, the early days of the state's oil boom.

The researchers found evidence of a causal link between natural gas flaring and increased hospitalizations for respiratory health

"North Dakota's shale boom happened too quickly and the region was too far from other oil drilling sites," said Wesley Blundell, an assistant professor in Washington State University's School of Economic Sciences and the study's lead author.

The researchers looked at drilling and GPS data to map where the burning occurred, and then looked at hospital admissions records, using anonymized hospital health code data for visits for external respiratory reasons

Brendel and co-author Anatoly Kokoza also investigated whether the increase in hospitalizations was caused by burning, or if it was simply related to the problem

Brendel's biggest surprise wasn't that the flames led to more people needing to go to the hospital

"We were shocked by the unfairness of the wind," Blundell said

Natural gas is often considered a "clean" energy source, but that's because it's captured and processed when it's used for electricity or as a fuel for cars

The North Dakota example allowed researchers to look at data on hospital visits before the shale boom, in those unrestricted years, and after a period when natural gas flaring was more regulated and restricted

"If these rules had been implemented at the start of the boom, the state could have reduced respiratory hospital visits by 11,000," said Brundle, the paper's first author

This toll on human health, combined with the cost of greenhouse gas emissions, makes flaring in areas around oil extraction more expensive

At a time when North Dakota had few restrictions on flaring, the state accounted for 3 percent of world flaring, more than all but 10 countries

So far, the focus of flaring has been the environmental climate cost of releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Blundell said

Journal Reference :

1. Wesley Blundell, Anatolii Kokoza.