No doubt you have heard of Cancer Alley in Louisiana, where about 150 petrochemical plants populate an 85 mile stretch along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. It’s aptly called “Cancer Alley” for the extremely elevated numbers of nearby residents who have suffered cancer and other serious health impacts.
Now, these health impacts are being exported to other parts of the country, as energy companies are exploring the expansion of petrochemical production into the Ohio River Valley and the broader Appalachian region of the U.S. These sites generally align with Marcellus shale gas reserves, which are fueling current production facilities and will fuel new ones as well. The Shell plastics plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania—a massive facility that uses shale gas to produce as much as 1.8 million tons of plastic each year—is the latest petrochemical plant to be built in this region.
The petrochemical industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of more than 7% between 2024 and 2030. With that growth comes an increased risk of serious health consequences for anyone living near a petrochemical facility or the shale gas drilling that feeds these facilities. And the risk doesn’t stop there. More petrochemicals means more climate impacts, threatening the health of everyone on the planet.
What Are Petrochemicals?
The petrochemical industry produces chemicals and other materials derived primarily from oil and gas. Petrochemicals are used in making plastic products and many other consumer goods, such as clothing, tires, digital devices, packaging, fertilizer, explosives, and detergents.
Petrochemical infrastructure is more than just a plant located here and there. It includes pipelines, compressor stations, storage facilities, rail and truck transportation, marine vessels and export terminals, and other infrastructure needed to support the industry. It also includes the thousands of shale gas wells required to supply the feedstock for petrochemicals.
There is a misconception that the vast majority of shale gas drilled in the Appalachian region is used for energy generation and home fuel use. In reality, much of it is currently shipped to the Gulf Coast to be used in petrochemical production there. Some of it is now transported to the Shell plastics plant, which produces raw plastic pellets (called nurdles) that are then sent elsewhere to be used to make consumer goods.
Ship Channel, Houston, TX
Photo citation: Ted Auch, FracTracker Alliance, 2019. Aerial support provided by LightHawk.
Some corporations are planning to locate additional petrochemical plants in the region, particularly because they can save costs over transporting gas across large swaths of the country. A petrochemical build-out in the region—where much legacy pollution still impacts public health—would be especially concerning. But even if a petrochemical buildout fails to materialize in this region, plants located elsewhere will still need to rely on the plentiful gas feedstock from the Marcellus shale reserves, requiring the drilling of many more shale gas wells. Indeed, as more renewable energy comes online and demand for gas falls, the industry is counting on petrochemicals and other fossil fuel-dependent industries, such as the planned Appalachian blue hydrogen hub, to keep them in business.
Health Concerns Around Petrochemicals
Petrochemicals raise serious concerns over health impacts from all phases of production, transport, storage, and waste processes. Here’s why.
Petrochemicals are toxic and accumulate in bodies and ecosystems, and their production poses a significant threat to climate change. Several studies and reports reveal a connection between petrochemical plants and higher risks of a number of health impacts, including maternal, reproductive, and newborn health issues; respiratory and pulmonary complications; mental health and impairment problems; susceptibility to viruses like COVID-19; and, of course, cancer.
Many petrochemicals interfere with the function of the endocrine system. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are present in many industrial and everyday products, such as plastics, building materials, children’s toys, fabrics and dyes, detergents, cosmetics, and pesticides. Exposure to EDCs has been linked to multiple adverse human health conditions, including cancer, neurodevelopmental harm, and infertility.
Overall hospitalizations for people living in proximity to petrochemical facilities may also be higher. Vulnerable populations—children, the elderly, pregnant individuals, those with preexisting conditions—are most likely to be impacted or to suffer more acute health consequences.
Other Sources of Petrochemical Health Impacts
Petrochemical plants produce large amounts of waste products, many of which are toxic and harmful to public health. Wastewater from these plants is required to be treated prior to releasing it back into the environment, but evidence exists that toxics substances, radioactive materials from upstream gas extraction, and manufacturing byproducts sometimes make their way into local waterways.
Flaring at a compressor station in Butler County, OH.
Photo citation: Ted Auch, FracTracker Alliance, 2018.
A petrochemical build-out will also require thousands of miles of new pipelines, which can leak and explode, often causing serious injuries and fatalities. And a build-out will require additional infrastructure like compressor stations and storage facilities—all of which can leak toxic chemicals and affect air and water quality in the region.
Petrochemical plants also release significant amounts of greenhouse gases, such as methane, which hastens climate change and results in more deadly floods, fires, heat waves, storms, and insect-borne diseases like Lyme disease. Methane is more than 80 times as powerful at trapping greenhouse gases in the short-term as CO2. Globally, more than one million deaths per year have been attributed to respiratory disease linked to long-term exposure to ozone air pollution.
Shale Gas Wells Impact Health
Any petrochemical build-out in the Appalachian region will require that many more shale gas wells be drilled in a region where several thousand wells already exist. It has been estimated that each plastics plant will need around 1,000 new wells to be drilled every three to five years to supply feedstock for manufacturing. These gas wells release toxic substances into the air, water, and soil, putting local communities at higher risk of a range of serious health issues. Like the larger petrochemical plants, these wells produce wastewater and waste sludge that are toxic and often radioactive.
Sustained noise from fracking activities can lead to sleep disturbance, cardiovascular issues, and psychological distress, including feelings of anger, anxiety, and exhaustion. The increased light pollution from drilling sites can disrupt natural sleep-wake cycles, potentially causing insomnia and other sleep-related problems. Additionally, the combined effects of noise and light pollution may contribute to a higher risk of diabetes, depression, and birth complications.
Meanwhile, residents living near shale gas wells that feed existing petrochemical plants continue to report negative health consequences.
One Solution: Reducing Our Reliance on Plastics
There are a number of ways we can better protect public health from pollution emitted by the petrochemical industry, but one of the best is to reduce the amount of plastic that industries and consumers use, especially single-use plastics, such as bottles, bags, food wrappers, straws, and product packaging. Single-use plastics comprise around 40% of the total plastics produced.
According to the World Economic Forum, plastic use is projected to triple by 2060. Further, 99% of plastics used today are made from fossil fuel feedstocks. Plastics take up valuable land space, as they accumulate faster in the environment than they decompose. Certain types of plastics take hundreds if not thousands of years to degrade. Plastic bottles can take up to 450 years or longer to break down.
There is a misconception that much of the plastic we use is recycled, but in reality only about 9 percent is recycled globally. In the U.S., that number is even less: about 5 to 6%. About 19 percent of plastic waste is incinerated, while most plastic waste—about 72%—ends up in landfills or in the environment.
Microplastics (between 1,000 nanometers and 5 millimeters in diameter) and nanoplastics (between 1 and 1,000 nanometers in diameter) are a particular health concern. These minute particles can enter human bodies through ingestion, respiration, or dermal contact and have been detected in organs, blood, saliva, and breast milk. Toxicologists warn that these plastics can raise the risk of cancer, heart and brain diseases, immune disorders, and reproductive issues. Additionally, the production, use, and disposal of plastic creates significant greenhouse gas emissions, which are known to heat up the planet and cause climate change.
Some alternatives to plastics are already taking hold, as stores are beginning to charge for plastic bags and consumers are encouraged to bring reusable bags with them when they shop. The use of reusable mugs, cups, and straws—often made from non-plastic materials—is also on the rise. Additionally, there is a growing market for plates, utensils, and other products made of compostable materials like bamboo and cornstarch. Caution with the use of these products is important, however, because some of them are made with melamine and formaldehyde resin, which may degrade in the microwave or dishwasher, or when they are filled with hot liquids.
An oft-mentioned process that the plastics industry thinks might help to solve at least part of the recycling problem is plastics pyrolysis. Plastics pyrolysis—also called advanced recycling or chemical recycling—is the heating of waste plastics to a high temperature without using oxygen so that they can be broken down into constituent components that can be made into new plastics. However, most environmental and health experts do not consider pyrolysis a form of recycling at all. Current pyrolysis facilities cannot actually accept the mixed plastic waste they claim they can, making contamination a real problem. Much reuse requires pristine products that plastics cracker plants and other industries need to be able to reuse the plastic. Plus, some energy is required in order to heat the waste plastics, which results in additional emissions. On top of that, additional virgin petroleum products are used to dilute the recycled content, meaning this is not a closed-loop process. The vast majority of the oil that results from the pyrolysis process is just used as oil, not made into new plastics. Further, industry would need to scale up pyrolysis capacity many times over in order to achieve results that make a meaningful difference in the recycling landscape. It remains to be seen if that sort of scale is financially feasible.
Nevertheless, reducing plastic use in the economy is absolutely critical to protect people from the harms of petrochemicals. Industry must play its part by decreasing its use of plastics and by substituting reusable plastics or other materials in packaging where a reduction in packaging material is not possible. A combination of industry replacing plastics with other materials and better reuse of plastics could result in an 80% reduction in plastic waste by 2040. This scenario would require a major shift in how plastics are currently produced, handled, and disposed of, but the health benefits of doing so would be immense.
Policy makers at all levels of government must also take action by passing legislation that reduces the production of plastic and holds industry responsible for failures to do so. Further, government agencies must regulate the chemical content and toxicity of plastic, requiring alternatives that are safer for public health.
Consumers may also play a role. For example, U.S. shoppers purchase around 50 billion plastic water bottles per year, about 13 bottles per month for every person in the country. Using a reusable water bottle could save an average of 156 plastic bottles per person annually. Yet, while consumers can help, the onus must be laid squarely on manufacturers and governments to stem the tide of toxic plastics flowing into our environment—and into our bodies.
Final Thoughts
Reducing reliance on single-use plastics would help to better protect public health from the harmful pollutants the petrochemical industry emits. Even more important is working to transition away from fossil fuel-sourced energy and manufacturing entirely and moving toward more renewable sources. The health of people living near any fossil fuel infrastructure is at stake, and so is the health and vitality of every person on the planet.
Case Study
The Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, began operations in 2023 and immediately exceeded permitted emissions levels. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued several notices of violations to Shell and required the company to pay fines and contribute to a community fund for mitigating the health and environmental impacts of the plant. Several towns are within five miles of the cracker plant as well as local businesses and institutions, including a mall, two high schools, two colleges, and a hospital.  Shell Ethane Cracker Plant, Beaver County PA Photo citation: Ted Auch, 2022. Photo courtesy of FracTracker Alliance. Petrochemical sites, such as ethane cracker plants, release large amounts of hazardous air pollutants, fine particles (PM2.5), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—all of which negatively impact public health. Cracker plants are especially dangerous because of their large size. For example, each year the Shell Cracker Plant in Beaver County is permitted to release (based on the operator’s Title V operating permit pending as of 7/11/24):
The Shell cracker plant received tax credit commitments from the state that, if fully utilized, will provide as much as $1.65 billion in free taxpayer money over the next 25 years. That’s the equivalent of $2.75 million per job created over 25 years, or $110,000 per year for each job. |
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