CR3 News Magazine 2023 VOL 3: MAY -- MEDICAL & LEGISLATIVE REVIEW | Page 60

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Is blue hydrogen good for public health?

Business viability aside, the generation of blue hydrogen raises the risk of public health impacts and the related healthcare costs in several critical ways.

First, blue hydrogen generation requires the extraction of fossil fuels—typically shale gas, composed primarily of methane—as feedstock, demanding many more hydraulically fractured gas wells in areas already overburdened by this heavy industry. Increased well production means greater emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as well as toxic chemicals—such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), glycol, and radium—into local communities. Studies have found that these emissions may raise the risk of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, heart disease and heart attacks, birth defects and pre-term deliveries, mental health issues, and cancer for people living near these operations.

Also, the generation of blue hydrogen itself raises the same elevated health risks for people living near these large-scale industrial complexes. With thesefacilities come greater emissions and greater risks of spills, leaks, or other contamination events. Given the right atmospheric conditions, pollution can travel for miles, impacting residents far from the source of emissions.

Public health may also be impacted by the transportation and storage of gas feedstock, used wastewater, gas byproducts, and the hydrogen itself once generated. Whether these products or byproducts are transported by diesel trucks, trains, ships, or pipelines, potentially harmful pollution releasescan andwilloccur at every stage of the process. The risks of accidents and explosions will increase, too.

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While blue hydrogen might be considered cleaner than some other available fuel options (think coal and oil), it’s not without a carbon footprint. Burning hydrogenas a mixture with methane gas, as some utilities have discussed doing, can produce dangerously high levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx). Two studies found that burning hydrogen-enriched methane gas can lead to NOx emissions up to six times that of burning methane gas alone. NOx plays a major role in the formation of smog—a major contributor to asthma and other respiratory issues.

Further, a large-scale blue hydrogen industry would facilitate more releases of climate-altering methane, which carries a heavy public health burden, as lethal storms, fires, heat waves, floods, and other extreme weather events impact people’s physical and mental health worldwide.

How can we protect public health from blue hydrogen production?

If blue hydrogen projects go forward, as they appear to be, robust and comprehensive public health protections are needed:

•Industry must be compelled to effect stringent emissions detection and reporting—working with communities to reduce exposure and alert the public of any unusual releases, whether planned or accidental.

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•Government agencies must be intrinsically involved in making sure industry complies with pollution standards, holding operators accountable when they do not comply.

•Health impact assessments and other community health monitoring must be put in place to ensure public health is protected today and into the future. Residents must be informed fully about health risks to which they are exposed.

•It is not enough to regulate sources of emissions singly. All sources of emissions must be aggregated to determine actual levels of pollution the public is exposed to in any given locality.

•Generation plants, pipelines, compressor stations, and other infrastructuremust be situated far enough from areas of human activity—including homes, schools, businesses, and recreational facilities—to protect public health.

•Communities must be given a say as to whether this development happens within their borders, and there must be clear channels of communication between governmental agencies, industrial operators, and community leaders.

When public health becomes part of the blue hydrogen conversation, only then can we truly begin to limit the serious risk to human health this industry poses.

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Kusnetz, N. (March 9, 2022). Carbon Capture Takes Center Stage, But Is Its Promise an Illusion? Inside Climate News. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09032022/carbon-capture-and-storage-fossil-fuels-climate-change/

Howarth, R.W., Jacobson, M.Z. (August 12, 2021). How green is blue hydrogen? Energy Science & Engineering. 9: 1676–1687. https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.956

Environmental Health Project. (March 2019). Illustrated Stages of Shale Gas Development: Examining the potential for ground/surface water and air contamination. https://www.environmentalhealthproject.org/_files/ugd/a9ce25_5304290ec6594c08954db6ce83075b4a.pdf

Environmental Health Project. (January 2021). What Is PM and Why Should You Be Concerned? https://www.environmentalhealthproject.org/_files/ugd/a9ce25_ab5fa37038d94686ad6459027e203035.pdf

Environmental Health Project. (February 2020). Health Outcomes Associated with Exposure to Shale Gas Development from Peer-Reviewed Epidemiological Literature. https://www.environmentalhealthproject.org/_files/ugd/a9ce25_4b70c65d66ae4d9381beb97c1122a803.pdf

Milford, L., Mullendore, S., Ramanan, A. (December 14, 2020). Hydrogen Hype in the Air (blog). Clean Energy Group. https://www.cleanegroup.org/hydrogen-hype-in-the-air/

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