Peak Petroleum and Public Health
- Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH;
- Jeremy Hess, MD, MPH;
- Stephen Vindigni, MPH
- Author Affiliations: National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia (Drs Frumkin and Hess and Mr Vindigni); and the Department of Emergency Medicine, Emory Medical School, Atlanta, Georgia (Dr Hess). Mr Vindigni is now with the Emory Medical School.
- Corresponding Author: Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH, National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, Mailstop E-28, Atlanta, GA 30333 (hfrumkin{at}cdc.gov).
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- AGRICULTURE
- COSTS AND COST ANALYSIS
- ECONOMICS
- ENERGY-GENERATING RESOURCES
- EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES
- FUEL OILS
- PETROLEUM
- PUBLIC HEALTH
Petroleum is a unique energy source; it is energy-dense, relatively stable, portable, and abundant. Since large-scale production began about 150 years ago, petroleum has become central to modern life. It is the precursor of nearly all transportation fuel, the source of heating oil, propane, and other fuels, and the starting point for chemical-building blocks such as ethylene, propylene, and xylene, which become polymers, resins, and other compounds, which in turn form products as diverse as plastics, solvents, textiles, lubricants, pesticides, and medications.
Petroleum is also a finite resource. Because it formed over millions of years and is being used faster than it is being formed, petroleum is nonrenewable on any human time scale; supply will at some point fall short of demand. The point at which petroleum production reaches its maximum is known as peak petroleum. Thereafter, perhaps following a plateau of a year or more, production inevitably declines. …
