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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Health and environmental effects document for oil shale - 1982

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5356281

The second year effort to analyze the potential human health and environmental risks of a hypothetical one million barrels-per-day industry has been completed as an aid in the formulation and management of a program of environmental research. Based on the sulfur surrogate model for premature deaths from air pollution, a significant benefit in human health (e.g. a factor of 20) results if low sulfur oil shale is used to displace imported foreign crude currently being refined. The largest uncertainties for expected fatalities are in the public sector from air pollutants although the occupational sector is estimated to have 60% more expected fatalities than the public sector. Occupational safety and illness have been analyzed for the oil shale fuel cycle from extraction to delivery of products for end use. Pneumoconiosis from the dust environment is the worker disease resulting in the greatest number of fatalities, followed by chronic bronchitis, internal cancer, and skin cancers, respectively. Research recommendations are presented for reducing the uncertainties in the risks analyzed to fill data gaps to estimate other risks.

Research Organization:
IWG Corp., San Diego, CA (USA); Colorado Univ., Denver (USA). Center for Environmental Sciences
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-82ER60087
OSTI ID:
5356281
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/60087-1; ON: DE84006433
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English