Health and Safety

Learn about how the oil and gas industry impacts health and safety through FracTracker articles, maps, and imagery.

Health and Safety Risks

The FracTracker articles and maps below explore the ways that unconventional oil & gas development impact public health and safety, including air pollution, water contamination, pipeline incidents such as explosions, fracking-induced earthquakes, and more. We analyze many of these issues through an Environmental Justice lens, considering that marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by health issues caused by oil and gas activities.

Image Gallery

Explore our images of health and safety issues related to energy exploration, extraction, production, and fossil fuel products and byproducts.

East Palestine Disaster

Explore an album of images related to the February 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Related Articles

EPA

Impacts of 2020 Colonial Pipeline Rupture Continue to Grow

In August 2020, the Colonial Pipeline ruptured, spilling an estimated 1.2 million gallons of gasoline—18 times more than originally reported.

2021 Pipeline Incidents Update: Safety Record Not Improving

The map below shows 6,950 total incidents since 2010, translating to 1.7 incidents per day. Pipelines are dangerous, in part because regulation around them is ineffective.

Shell’s Falcon Pipeline Under Investigation for Serious Public Safety Threats

Shell’s Falcon Pipeline, which is designed to carry ethane to the Shell ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA for plastic production, has been under investigation by federal and state agencies, since 2019.
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