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Ethane crackers use ethane, a fossil-derived chemical, to create the tiny pellets that are the building blocks for plastics manufacturing. The process creates dangerous air pollution that harms our health and makes climate change worse. Plastic production is among the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial sector. Among other pollutants, ethane cracker facilities release millions of tons per year of carbon dioxide, driving global warming, which threatens our health, our communities, and our children’s future.
There are more than 35 ethane cracker facilities in the United States, mostly in Texas and Louisiana, as well as in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Illinois. Wastewater, chemical spills, and hazardous pollutants from plastic cracker facilities can contaminate water and soil.
Shell ethane cracker facility in Beaver County, PA. Photo: Mark Dixon
Ethane cracker facilities and health
Ethane cracker facilities emit hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and contribute to smog and overall poor air quality. Toxic chemicals from the air can also get into soil and water, harming ecosystems and wildlife.
Breathing the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), HAPs, heavy metals, nitrogen oxides, and particulates from these facilities puts the health of workers and members of communities surrounding ethane crackers at very high risk. Babies and children are particularly vulnerable to this pollution because their lungs, brains, and other organs are still developing. They breathe faster than adults and tend to spend more time outside, potentially increasing their exposure to unhealthy air.
Hazardous air pollutants are of particular concern at ethane cracker facilities. HAPs are chemicals, such as benzene, formaldehyde, and ethylene oxide, which are known to cause cancer, neurological problems, cardiovascular problems, respiratory problems, and birth defects and can also trigger asthma attacks.
At the ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, extremely elevated levels of the carcinogen 1.3 butadiene have been recorded. No safe level of exposure exists, and it’s associated with health effects such as reduced birth weight pregnancies, blood and immune system disease, and leukemia.
Working at or living in proximity to ethane cracker facilities can also create mental health impacts. People in communities living nearby are exposed to loud noises, stadium lighting, chemical smells, and a constant fear of explosions and spills. All this compounded with the lack of information on chemical exposures happening in real time has people concerned about what they are breathing and how it impacts their health.
What happens at ethane cracker facilities?
In a cracker facility, ethane gas is heated to high temperatures—often more than 1,500 degrees F. High heat breaks apart or “cracks” ethane’s molecular bonds, and atoms are rearranged, creating ethylene and propylene that can be used to make plastics, detergents, fertilizers, and more.
Ethane cracker facilities are generally very large, sometimes the size of hundreds of football fields, and require massive amounts of energy to operate, including to heat the enormous furnaces.
A single ethane cracker facility may produce more than a million tons of tiny plastic pellets called nurdles per year, which often end up spilled into the environment.
Environmental justice and ethane cracker facilities
Most U.S. ethane cracker facilities are located near communities of color and those experiencing poverty. The facilities worsen toxic air pollution in places where residents are already breathing significant chemical and manufacturing industry pollution.
For example, in Louisiana, the area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is known as Cancer Alley, because the high amount of chemical pollution there has been linked to elevated cancer rates. More than 150 chemical and manufacturing facilities are located along the Mississippi River in Cancer Alley.
The Appalachian region in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, along the Ohio River, is also economically depressed and has similarly struggled with poor air quality long before the added burden from ethane crackers.
In addition to the long-term exposures, workers and residents near cracker facilities face daily risk of leaks, spills, explosions, fires, and other catastrophic events.
The link between ethane cracker facilities and fracking in the U.S.
Ethane gas is needed to create ethylene in cracker facilities. The process of drilling for ethane gas in the U.S. involves a technique called fracking. Large amounts of water, mixed with sand and toxic chemicals, are pumped under high pressure deep into the earth to release oil and gas from fractures created by explosives in hard rock.
Building more ethane cracker facilities will increase the demand for ethane and the fracked gas infrastructure to supply it. Oil and gas operations come with environmental, health, and justice concerns.
Oil and gas operations come with environmental, health, and justice concerns.
Get involved
Federal and state pollution control standards for plastics production are inadequate to protect public health and the environment. Individuals living near ethane cracker facilities can join forces and advocate for helpful guardrails like stricter emissions caps, advanced monitoring technologies with publicly available real-time results, and enforceable penalties for violations through actions such as commenting at permit hearings and working with your state environmental protection agency to make your concerns known. Anyone can also join Moms Clean Air Force to demand that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enact the strongest possible standards to ensure ethane cracker facilities don’t harm our children, our families, our communities, and the air we breathe.
Learn more about Moms' work on petrochemical pollution.
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Updated: March 2025