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Health and environmental impact of the petroleum industry
The environmental impact of the petroleum industry is extensive and expansive due to petroleum having many uses. Crude oil and natural gas are primary energy and raw material sources that enable numerous aspects of modern daily life and the world economy. Their supply has grown quickly over the last 150 years to meet the demands of the rapidly increasing human population, creativity, knowledge, and consumerism.
Substantial quantities of toxic and non-toxic waste are generated during the extraction, refinement, and transportation stages of oil and gas. Some industry by-products, such as volatile organic compounds, nitrogen & sulfur compounds, and spilled oil can pollute the air, water and soil at levels that are harmful to life, when improperly managed. Climate warming, ocean acidification, and sea level rise are global changes enhanced by the industry's emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, and micro-particulate aerosols like black carbon. Vehicle tailpipe emissions kill many people.
Among all human activities, fossil fuel combustion is the largest contributor to the ongoing buildup of carbon in the Earth's biosphere. The International Energy Agency and others report that oil & gas use comprises over 55% (18 billion tons) of the recorded 32.8 billion tons (BT) of CO2 released into the atmosphere from all energy sources in year 2017. Coal use comprised most of the remaining 45%. Total emissions continue to rise nearly every year: from 1.7% to 33.1 BT in 2018.
Through its operations, the petroleum industry directly contributed about 8% (2.7 BT) of the 32.8 BT in 2017. Also, due to its intentional and other releases of natural gas, the industry directly contributed at least 79 million tons of methane (2.4 BT CO2-equivalent) that same year; an amount equal to about 14% of all known anthropogenic and natural emissions of the potent warming gas.
Along with fuels like gasoline and liquefied natural gas, petroleum enables many consumer chemicals and products, such as fertilizers and plastics. Most alternative technologies for energy generation, transportation, and storage can only be realized at this time because of its diverse usefulness. Conservation, efficiency, and minimizing waste impacts of petroleum products are effective industry and consumer actions toward achieving better environmental sustainability.
Petroleum is a complex mixture of many components . These components include straight chained, branched, cyclic, monocyclic aromatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The toxicity of oils can be understood using the toxic potential or the toxicity of each individual component of oil at the water solubility of that component. There are many methods that can be used to measure the toxicity of crude oil and other petroleum related products. Certain studies analyzing levels of toxicity can use the target lipid model or colorimetric analysis using colored-dyes in order to assess toxicity and biodegradability.
Different oils and petroleum-related products have different levels of toxicity. Levels of toxicity are influenced by many factors such as weathering, solubility, as well as chemical properties such as persistence. Increased weathering tends to decrease levels of toxicity as more soluble and lower molecular weight substances are removed. Highly soluble substances tend to have higher levels of toxicity than substances that are not very soluble in water. Generally oils that have longer carbon chains and with more benzene rings have higher levels of toxicity. Benzene is the petroleum-related product with the highest level of toxicity. Other substances other than benzene which are highly toxic are toluene, methylbenzene and xylenes (BETX). Substances with the lowest toxicity are crude oil and motor oil.
Despite varying levels of toxicity amongst different variants of oil, all petroleum-derived products have adverse impacts on human health and the ecosystem. Examples of adverse effects are oil emulsions in digestive systems in certain mammals might result in decreased ability to digest nutrients that might lead to death of certain mammals. Further symptoms include capillary ruptures and hemorrhages. Ecosystem food chains can be affected due to a decrease in algae productivity therefore threatening certain species. Oil is "acutely lethal" to fish – that is, it kills fish quickly, at a concentration of 4000 parts per million (ppm) (0.4%). The toxicity of petroleum related products threaten human health. Many compounds found in oil are highly toxic and can cause cancer (carcinogenic) as well as other diseases. Studies in Taiwan link proximity to oil refineries to premature births. Crude oil and petroleum distillates cause birth defects.
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Health and environmental impact of the petroleum industry
The environmental impact of the petroleum industry is extensive and expansive due to petroleum having many uses. Crude oil and natural gas are primary energy and raw material sources that enable numerous aspects of modern daily life and the world economy. Their supply has grown quickly over the last 150 years to meet the demands of the rapidly increasing human population, creativity, knowledge, and consumerism.
Substantial quantities of toxic and non-toxic waste are generated during the extraction, refinement, and transportation stages of oil and gas. Some industry by-products, such as volatile organic compounds, nitrogen & sulfur compounds, and spilled oil can pollute the air, water and soil at levels that are harmful to life, when improperly managed. Climate warming, ocean acidification, and sea level rise are global changes enhanced by the industry's emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, and micro-particulate aerosols like black carbon. Vehicle tailpipe emissions kill many people.
Among all human activities, fossil fuel combustion is the largest contributor to the ongoing buildup of carbon in the Earth's biosphere. The International Energy Agency and others report that oil & gas use comprises over 55% (18 billion tons) of the recorded 32.8 billion tons (BT) of CO2 released into the atmosphere from all energy sources in year 2017. Coal use comprised most of the remaining 45%. Total emissions continue to rise nearly every year: from 1.7% to 33.1 BT in 2018.
Through its operations, the petroleum industry directly contributed about 8% (2.7 BT) of the 32.8 BT in 2017. Also, due to its intentional and other releases of natural gas, the industry directly contributed at least 79 million tons of methane (2.4 BT CO2-equivalent) that same year; an amount equal to about 14% of all known anthropogenic and natural emissions of the potent warming gas.
Along with fuels like gasoline and liquefied natural gas, petroleum enables many consumer chemicals and products, such as fertilizers and plastics. Most alternative technologies for energy generation, transportation, and storage can only be realized at this time because of its diverse usefulness. Conservation, efficiency, and minimizing waste impacts of petroleum products are effective industry and consumer actions toward achieving better environmental sustainability.
Petroleum is a complex mixture of many components . These components include straight chained, branched, cyclic, monocyclic aromatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The toxicity of oils can be understood using the toxic potential or the toxicity of each individual component of oil at the water solubility of that component. There are many methods that can be used to measure the toxicity of crude oil and other petroleum related products. Certain studies analyzing levels of toxicity can use the target lipid model or colorimetric analysis using colored-dyes in order to assess toxicity and biodegradability.
Different oils and petroleum-related products have different levels of toxicity. Levels of toxicity are influenced by many factors such as weathering, solubility, as well as chemical properties such as persistence. Increased weathering tends to decrease levels of toxicity as more soluble and lower molecular weight substances are removed. Highly soluble substances tend to have higher levels of toxicity than substances that are not very soluble in water. Generally oils that have longer carbon chains and with more benzene rings have higher levels of toxicity. Benzene is the petroleum-related product with the highest level of toxicity. Other substances other than benzene which are highly toxic are toluene, methylbenzene and xylenes (BETX). Substances with the lowest toxicity are crude oil and motor oil.
Despite varying levels of toxicity amongst different variants of oil, all petroleum-derived products have adverse impacts on human health and the ecosystem. Examples of adverse effects are oil emulsions in digestive systems in certain mammals might result in decreased ability to digest nutrients that might lead to death of certain mammals. Further symptoms include capillary ruptures and hemorrhages. Ecosystem food chains can be affected due to a decrease in algae productivity therefore threatening certain species. Oil is "acutely lethal" to fish – that is, it kills fish quickly, at a concentration of 4000 parts per million (ppm) (0.4%). The toxicity of petroleum related products threaten human health. Many compounds found in oil are highly toxic and can cause cancer (carcinogenic) as well as other diseases. Studies in Taiwan link proximity to oil refineries to premature births. Crude oil and petroleum distillates cause birth defects.