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Unconventional natural gas (UNG) production activities in Australia are dominated by coal seam gas (CSG) in New South Wales and Queensland. A 2014 report by the NSW Chief Scientist on managing environmental and human health risks from CSG activities identified potential risks to the environment (air, soil, water) and risks and uncertainties around human health from emissions arising from CSG activities (OCSE 2014). The report concluded that the risks can be managed through regulation and monitoring. Despite this finding, concerns about possible health effects continue to be voiced in communities with CSG development and more widely. Acknowledging the concern over the potential health impacts of CSG activity, CSIRO’s Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA) and the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) have funded the first steps of a study design project that will investigate the influence of CSG activity in Australia on human health.

The study design project focuses on a review of the state of knowledge about health impacts of CSG activity, identification of gaps in the knowledge base, and development of a framework that can be used to design a study to address identified gaps. The framework produced in the study design project will be used to develop proposals for one or more future studies across Australia’s CSG regions.