Topic One: What Has Industry Been Doing in Response to EPA’s Hydraulic Fracturing Environmental and Regulatory Efforts?

The presentation will review ongoing study and advocacy efforts being led by the American Petroleum Institute (API), focusing on EPA’s national hydraulic fracturing study and their work in Pavillion Wyoming.  The ultimate outcomes of EPA’s work on these two studies will have significant influence on how hydraulic fracturing operations will be conducted in the future.  API’s work in tracking, monitoring and performing critical reviews of EPA’s studies in already yielding interesting results and insights.  This presentation will also touch on several other topics being addressed by EPA, including the pending Diesel Use Guidance, induced seismicity, and the update of API’s HF-1, HF-2 and HF-3 Guidance documents.

Topic Two: Overview of NIOSH Field Effort to Assess Chemical Exposures in Gas and Oil Workers

Hydraulic fracturing is an industrial process that presents potential chemical and physical hazards. Occupational health and safety practices to effectively control these hazards will be discussed. There is a lack of published information regarding the variety and magnitude of chemical exposure risks to oil and gas extraction workers.  NIOSH has developed partnerships with the oil and gas (O&G) extraction industry to identify, characterize and (if needed) control workplace chemical exposures through the NIOSH Oil and Gas Extraction Safety and Health Program. This presentation describes the NIOSH Field Effort, discuss potential hazards for occupational exposures and describe results of a recent NIOSH study looking at risks and results for exposures to respirable crystalline silica in a variety of completions sites across the U.S.