**6. Health, safety and the environment**

Undoubtedly, the production of unconventional hydrocarbons is attendant with several benefits. These include an increase in the global quantity of energy sources, cheaper prices, the accessibility to relatively cleaner energies, etc. Despite these merits, there are various drawbacks subsumed under environmental impacts and health and safety. Occupational and public health risks are thriving in the oil and gas industry. While there are risk exposures common to hydrocarbon production in general, there are concerns specific to unconventional reservoirs. This can be viewed from three standpoints: the environmental impact, health and safety. Environmental effects deal with negative changes inflicted on the surroundings and far-reach zones (sub-surface, surface and atmospheric regions) as a result of production activities. Health and safety issues focus on the effect on humans and are divided into two facets: occupational and public.

## **6.1 Occupational health and safety**

Workers are customary exposed to numerous hazards. Transport-related activities are reported as the highest cause of accidents due to the prolific movement of people, equipment, chemicals, hydrocarbon produce, etc. [41]. There is also a risk of explosions from inflammable and high-pressured fluids and contact with (by inhaling) hazardous constituent compounds of hydrocarbons such as hydrogen sulphide and crystalline silica usually used as proppants for hydraulic fracturing [41, 42].
