The health burden and racial-ethnic disparities of air pollution from the major oil and gas lifecycle stages in the United States

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

8-22-2025

Journal

Science advances

Volume

11

Issue

34

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adu2241

Abstract

The United States has one of the world's largest oil and gas (O&G) industries, yet the health impacts and inequities from pollutants produced along the O&G lifecycle remain poorly characterized. Here, we model the contribution of major lifecycle stages (upstream, midstream, downstream, and end-use) to air pollution and estimate the associated chronic health outcomes and racial-ethnic disparities across the contiguous US in 2017. We estimate lifecycle annual burdens of 91,000 premature deaths attributable to fine particles (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO), and ozone, 10,350 PM-attributable preterm births, 216,000 incidences of NO-attributable childhood-onset asthma, and 1610 lifetime cancers attributable to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). Racial-ethnic minorities experience the greatest disparities in exposure and health burdens across almost all lifecycle stages. The greatest absolute disparities occur for Black and Asian populations from PM and ozone, and the Asian population from NO and HAPs. Relative inequities are most extreme from downstream activities, especially in Louisiana and Texas.

Department

Environmental and Occupational Health

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