Researchers dismiss CO2 storage fears

FEARS that storing CO2 underground could pose a risk to human health are unfounded, a team of city scientists claimed today.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh said the risk of death from poisoning as a result of exposure to CO2 leaks from underground rocks was about one in 100 million.

A team from the university’s geosciences department studied historical data on deaths from CO2 poisoning in Italy, where the gas seeps naturally from the ground because of volcanic activity.

They found the number of recorded deaths was very low, and said engineered gas storage underground, used as part of measures to tackle global warming, could be even safer, as it would be planned and monitored.