Soil/Gas Risks

Uncontrolled subsurface gas migration and emission poses a number of risks to the environment and human health & safety from anthropogenic sources (the general term for gases originating in human activity) such as:-

• landfill waste
• abandoned coal mining
• shale gas production
• contaminated land from past industrial use (some dating as far back as Victorian times)
• pipeline leaks from current industrial processes such as oil refining & chemical manufacture
• Coal bed methane And depending on the type of gas present, there is the potential for:-
• an explosion
• acute health effects e.g. headaches, dizziness, unconsciousness or even asphyxiation and death
• chronic, long term health effects e.g. cancers.
• Global warming

The effects are most dangerous when gases and vapours enter buildings because they become more concentrated rather than dispersing to the ambient atmosphere.