Approximately one year ago, residents of the city of Dish, Texas, raised concerns about benzene in the air as a result of natural gas operations. Those residents repeatedly called for more answers over the past year. In light of these concerns, state agencies have dedicated significant resources to determine the facts and provide residents with scientific data about air quality and their health. The state provided answers that unequivocally assure residents of Dish and the entire Barnett Shale area of the safety of natural gas operations in the region and eliminate concerns about benzene levels in their air and blood.

On May 12, 2011, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) released the results of the Dish, Texas, Exposure Investigation, a test of residents’ blood and urine. The tests, analyzed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, are able to detect even the lowest levels of chemicals. The results indisputably state that no resident tested had an elevated level of benzene in his or her blood or urine, except for several smokers included in the sample, as cigarette smoke contains benzene.

The health department report also included test results for five DSHS staff members who traveled to Dish, with testing done both before and at the end of their visit to Dish. Several of the same metabolites found in Dish residents’ urine, such as N,N-dimethylformamide, were also found in DSHS staff in Austin before their visit to Dish, which indicates other possible sources of exposure. The report concluded it is not possible to relate the levels of substances that DSHS measured in Dish residents’ blood and/or urine to potential health risks.

While some newspaper headlines stated, “Tests Find Toxins in Dish residents,” the truth is the same toxins were found in the DSHS staff in Austin before they ever traveled to Dish. The Austin area doesn’t have any natural gas facilities and has not been challenged with non-attainment by the EPA or the state. In fact, according to Dr. Thomas Dydek, a Texas-based toxicologist, “The results of this study are not surprising because these chemicals are extremely common and found in the blood of the majority of Americans.”

In addition to the health department testing, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) also recently announced its efforts to increase air monitoring in Dish. On April 22, the TCEQ’s two, new continuous air monitors went online in North Texas and both began providing real-time data with regard to air emissions that same week. The new monitors, called automatic gas chromatographs, or AutoGCs, were installed at the Dish Airfield and at Eagle Mountain Lake. These are in addition to the existing monitors at Fort Worth Meacham Airport and Dallas Hinton.

The new AutoGC was placed inside the Dish town limits on the town airstrip in order to provide continuous sampling of the air that residents are breathing. Since installation, benzene levels have remained between 300 and 3,000 times lower than the state’s short-term effects screening levels indicate would be cause for concern during a one-hour period of exposure.

By comparison, the air monitor readings from the AutoGC at Dallas-Hinton, where there are no natural gas operations, show that on many days the benzene level is higher at that location than in Dish.

The leaders of Dish have publically praised the health department for coming to their tiny town to test the blood and urine of its residents and similarly applauded the TCEQ for installing real-time air monitors.

Now it is time for all of us to acknowledge that the results of these TCEQ and DSHS investigations demonstrate that Barnett Shale natural gas operations do not represent a threat to the health of the residents of Dish or to the quality of the air they breathe.