In the winters of 2012 and 2013, researchers from the University of Colorado measured VOCs (chemicals like benzene, ethyl benzene, xylene and toluene) over the Uinta Basin and made a frightening discovery: Levels of these chemicals were 200 times background levels, as much as would be expected from the emissions of 100 million cars , about the same number as all the cars registered in the United States.

In some areas, benzene concentrations were 10,000 times higher than is typical for an urban area. Almost all of it was from the oil and gas industry. These VOCs are highly toxic in and of themselves, as carcinogens and reproductive and developmental toxins, but they are also precursors of ozone, a notorious problem in the basin for many years .

Utah Physicians for a Healthy Enviro

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