The health impact of living near a fossil gas leak

Leaked methane is helping scientists map toxic threats to health.

At the very base of the United States, straddling the border between Texas and New Mexico, lies the Permian Basin. Formed around a billion years ago, the region’s ancient deposits of organic matter have, in modern times, provided a vast reserve of oil and gas. But some say that for the communities drawn to the jobs and opportunities in this desert landscape, there is a high price to pay.

Jozee Dominguez Zuniga is a 22-year-old grass roots organiser who lives in Eddy County, New Mexico. Her family has no less than six gas pipelines running through the back of their property. There is also a fracking site "around two miles" down the road, Zuniga says, and active oil rigs are within sight of the local primary school, health clinic and senior centre. When she stands outside in the street at dusk, what appears to be a "huge fire" lines the horizon, she says: rows and rows of flares burning off excess gas from oil wells. 

For Zuniga, living among all this fossil fuel infrastructure raises an urgent question: could it be making her and her community sick?

"I'm 22 and I don't want to have children," Zuniga says, adding that she feels she would be putting them at risk of poor health. 

While it is difficult to answer that question for individuals living near pipelines or oil rigs, a range of studies suggest that pollutants from oil and gas production can indeed pose health risks.