PETROCHEMICAL PRODUCTION

Petrochemical Production: The industrial process that produces plastic also affects human health and contributes heavily to climate change. The main ingredient for making plastic in the U.S. is natural gas, a fossil fuel extracted by fracking—a drilling practice that pumps millions of gallons of water and chemicals deep underground to fracture layers of rock that contain the gas.

The extraction, processing, storage, and transport of the gas to the giant “ethane crackers” that make plastic results in an ongoing release of methane at multiple stages, a greenhouse gas many times more heat-trapping than CO2. Many of the chemicals used in the drilling process are known to be toxic, and the slurry that returns to the surface can also be radioactive due to uranium in the rock formations being fractured.

Sprawling petrochemical complexes like the one in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, turn the ethane gas into ethylene by heating it at extreme temperature to “crack” its molecular bonds. These facilities are permitted to release greenhouse gases including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and other hazardous pollutants such as benzene (a known carcinogen) that exacerbate health conditions that include asthma, cardiovascular disease, and adverse birth outcomes.

State and federal agencies allow what they consider safe levels of these emissions, levels that are routinely exceeded due to technical problems and accidental releases. These known health hazards are why petrochemical facilities of all types have tended to be built in areas where low-income, marginalized communities are perceived to be less able to resist the development—a prime example being Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.”