Mass health care providers against fracked gas
Before widespread UOGD, studies had detected above-background levels of Radium-226, a decay product of U-238, in the wastes of conventional oil and natural gas development (COGD) 14, 15. The concentration of Uranium-238 in sedimentary formation rich in organic matter, such as black shale, is significantly higher than the background level of in earth’s crust due to the natural attenuation process 12, 13. Naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) is a common by-product in Oil and Gas (O&G) production industry.
Meanwhile, numerous controversies have arisen, partially due to the potential harmful impacts on the local environment 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and on the health of nearby residents 8, 9, 10, 11. As of 2017, over 120,000 onshore UOGD wells had been drilled via a practice involving directional drilling combined with multistage high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) 1. The extraction of crude oil and natural gas from the low-permeability unconventional geological accumulating formation (known as unconventional oil and natural gas development ) expanded extensively over the past decade. Based on the published health analysis of PR, the widespread UOGD could induce adverse health effects to residents living close to UOGD by elevating PR.
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Our statistical analysis found that an additional 100 upwind UOGD wells within 20 km is associated with an increase of 0.024 mBq/m 3 (95% confidence interval, 0.020, 0.028 mBq/m 3) in the gross-beta particle radiation downwind. We investigated the association between the upwind UOGD well count and the downwind gross-beta radiation with adjustment for environmental factors governing the natural emission and transport of radioactivity. We obtained the information of over 1.5 million wells from the Enverus database. We collected the ambient particle radioactivity (PR) measurements of RadNet, a nationwide environmental radiation monitoring network. However, the influence of UOGD on the radioactivity of ambient particulate is not well understood. Unconventional oil and natural gas development (UOGD) expanded extensively in the United States from the early 2000s.