Sour Gas damages the brain, even at very low levels:
1. Exposure to levels below 10 ppm permanently damage the human brain
This was quickly removed after I posted it. It’s a dead link now.
2. Harm from levels below 10 ppm by Worksafe Alberta This now goes to UCP boasting about jobs economy trade.
3. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) LOW LEVEL HEALTH HARM WARNINGS:
Sour Gas Concentration (ppm)/Symptoms/Effects
0.01-1.5 ppm/Odor threshold (when rotten egg smell is first noticeable to some). …
2-5 ppm/Prolonged exposure may cause nausea, tearing of the eyes, headaches or loss of sleep. Airway problems (bronchial constriction) in some asthma patients.
… The Canadian Union of Public Employees safety sheet for workers, for example, says “THE SAFEST EXPOSURE TO HYDROGEN SULFIDE IS NO EXPOSURE AT ALL.” …
By way of context, it points out that in a single recent five-year span there were 73 documented sour gas leaks in B.C. and that 34 workers have died as a result of sour gas exposure since 1983. …
Texas Oilfield Company and Executive Plead Guilty in Hydrogen Sulfide Deaths, Permian Basin oilfield worker Jacob Dean and his wife, Natalee, suffered fatal hydrogen sulfide exposure at a work site. Two companies entered guilty pleas and will pay $1.4 million in fines by Martha Pskowski, April 16, 2025, Inside Climate News
Related: Texas Oil Drillers Can Bury Toxic Waste on Private Property Without Telling the Landowner. A New Bill Seeks to Change That
Aghorn Operating Inc., a Texas oilfield company, and its vice president pleaded guilty Tuesday to criminal charges resulting from the death of a worker and his wife in 2019 near Odessa.
Aghorn will pay $1 million in fines and a services company, Kodiak Roustabout Inc., will pay an additional $400,000. Aghorn vice president Trent Day was sentenced to five months in prison.
The charges in United States v. Aghorn Operating, Inc. stemmed from the Oct. 26, 2019 incident at an Aghorn facility in the Permian Basin. Monitors for hydrogen sulfide, an invisible gas found in some oil reserves, were not working when Jacob Dean responded to an alarm to check a pump. Dean was exposed to fatal levels of the gas. His wife, Natalee Dean, then entered the facility looking for him and was also killed by hydrogen sulfide exposure.
Aghorn pleaded guilty this week to Clean Air Act negligent endangerment charges and an Occupational Safety and Health Act willful violation count. Day pleaded guilty to negligent endangerment charges. Kodiak Roustabout Inc. pleaded guilty to felony violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act for falsifying oil well integrity tests.
Other pending charges will be dismissed as part of the plea agreements.
Exposure to hydrogen sulfide is among the leading causes of workplace gas inhalation deaths in the United States. Texas companies tapping into oil and gas reserves are required to test their gas for hydrogen sulfide and follow safety standards depending on the gas composition. Nonetheless, several oilfield deaths from hydrogen sulfide exposure, in addition to the Deans, have been reported in recent years. Another oilfield worker died in September 2022 after inhaling hydrogen sulfide while working in proximity to a sump pit near the Permian Basin town of Orla, Texas.
“Operators who gravely endanger and kill others and those who lie to the government will be held accountable for their criminal conduct,” said Jeffrey Hall, assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “EPA’s criminal investigation of these tragic deaths led to today’s plea deal.”Never mind, King Fanta Fascist will quickly get Nazi Musk’s DOGE to kill all regulations/laws and agencies protecting workers and families living nearby.
Aghorn Operating declined to comment.
Persistent Safety Threat to Oilfield Workers
In Texas hydrogen sulfide, also known as sour gas, is regulated by both the Railroad Commission of Texas, under Statewide Rule 36, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Drill sites with high levels of the gas are required to post signage, install alarms and require workers to wear monitors. Exposure to sour gas is one of several workplace hazards in the oilfields, in addition to vehicle incidents, contact injuries and explosions.
Railroad Commission spokesperson Bryce Dubee said the agency took its own enforcement action against Aghorn. “Our dedicated inspectors conduct inspections daily at oil and gas facilities throughout the state, and if there are violations of Rule 36 they are inspected until addressed and compliance has been met,” he said.
A 2022 report by Jack McDonald and Sharon Wilson for Earthworks counted 10 additional Texas oilfield workers dying of hydrogen sulfide exposure, in addition to the Deans, since 2010.
“Operators are not following the law,” said Wilson, who now works with Oilfield Witness, a nonprofit organization tracking the oil industry. “It’s no surprise that people are being injured and dying.”
Trent Day, the Aghorn vice president, admitted to the Justice Department that he did not fulfill his duty to control hydrogen sulfide emissions. Aghorn also admitted that it willfully violated OSHA respiratory protection regulations.
The Justice Department investigation also found that Kodiak made false statements to the Railroad Commission about well integrity tests at Aghorn injection wells. The company submitted tests for specific wells that did not in fact correspond to those wells. The case was prosecuted by the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division.
A 2023 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed fatalities among oil and gas extraction workers between 2014 and 2019. The report found that Texas, the nation’s largest oil producer, led the U.S. with 219 of the 470 total deaths. Nationwide, the report attributed 47 deaths to exposure, which could include hydrogen sulfide and other dangerous gases and chemicals.
Wilson said that workers are often exposed to hydrogen sulfide on the job but experience symptoms hours or days later. She said existing data is likely undercounting the problem because worker health is not tracked long-term for signs of exposure. She said the problem is pervasive.And much worse in Canada, notably where Encana/Ovintiv operates
“It’s not just Aghorn,” she said. “It’s not just the Permian Basin. It’s throughout Texas.”It’s global, nearly anywhere and everywhere companies are frac’ing or injecting waste or surface water for enhanced recovery.
Refer also to:
2019: Encana’s Vexatious Sour Gas Frack Flaring near Grand Prairie, Alberta; After clip posted, Encana removes its emergency response plan from public access. That’s how little the company gives a damn about human life, the communities it profit rapes in, or the public.
… Sour gas is lethal after five minutes of exposure at doses as small as 800 parts per million and has killed 34 petroleum industry workers since 1983….
The Canadian Union of Public Employees safety sheet for workers, for example, says “THE SAFEST EXPOSURE TO HYDROGEN SULFIDE IS NO EXPOSURE AT ALL.” …
2013-12-12: Map NEBC with article on industry’s sour gas leaving school kids in danger
2008 11 01: Encana (now Ovintiv) contractors give the finger. This is what Encana thinks of you, your loved ones, home, health, livestock and pets, safety from risks to us from sour gas incidents:
2004:
