Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, 60 College St., New Haven, CT, 06510, USA.
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 630 West 168th Street, Room 16-416, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
Curr Environ Health Rep. 2022 Sep;9(3):436-450. doi: 10.1007/s40572-022-00358-4. Epub 2022 May 6.
Epidemiologic studies have observed elevated health risks in populations living near unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD). In this narrative review, we discuss strengths and limitations of UOG exposure assessment approaches used in or available for epidemiologic studies, emphasizing studies of children's health outcomes.
Exposure assessment challenges include (1) numerous potential stressors with distinct spatiotemporal patterns, (2) critical exposure windows that cover long periods and occur in the past, and (3) limited existing monitoring data coupled with the resource-intensiveness of collecting new exposure measurements to capture spatiotemporal variation. All epidemiologic studies used proximity-based models for exposure assessment as opposed to surveys, biomonitoring, or environmental measurements. Nearly all studies used aggregate (rather than pathway-specific) models, which are useful surrogates for the complex mix of potential hazards. Simple and less-specific exposure assessment approaches have benefits in terms of scalability, interpretability, and relevance to specific policy initiatives such as set-back distances. More detailed and specific models and metrics, including dispersion methods and stressor-specific models, could reduce exposure misclassification, illuminate underlying exposure pathways, and inform emission control and exposure mitigation strategies. While less practical in a large population, collection of multi-media environmental and biological exposure measurements would be feasible in cohort subsets. Such assessments are well-suited to provide insights into the presence and magnitude of exposures to UOG-related stressors in relation to spatial surrogates and to better elucidate the plausibility of observed effects in both children and adults.
流行病学研究观察到，在非常规油气开发（UOGD）附近居住的人群健康风险增加。在本叙述性综述中，我们讨论了流行病学研究中使用或可用于 UOG 暴露评估方法的优缺点，重点讨论了儿童健康结果的研究。
暴露评估的挑战包括：（1）具有不同时空模式的众多潜在压力源；（2）暴露的关键窗口期长且发生在过去；（3）现有的监测数据有限，加上收集新的暴露测量值以捕捉时空变化的资源密集性。所有流行病学研究都使用基于接近度的模型进行暴露评估，而不是调查、生物监测或环境测量。几乎所有研究都使用了总括（而非特定途径）模型，这是对潜在危害的复杂组合的有用替代物。简单且不那么具体的暴露评估方法在可扩展性、可解释性以及与特定政策举措（如后退距离）的相关性方面具有优势。更详细和具体的模型和指标，包括分散方法和压力源特异性模型，可以减少暴露分类错误，阐明潜在的暴露途径，并为排放控制和暴露缓解策略提供信息。虽然在大量人群中不太实际，但在队列子集中收集多介质环境和生物暴露测量是可行的。这种评估非常适合提供有关与空间替代物相关的 UOG 相关压力源的存在和程度的见解，并更好地阐明在儿童和成人中观察到的效应的合理性。
