Hydrogen: Journey to Net Zero Occupational Illnesses

As governments across the world seek to decarbonize in an effort to keep the rise in global surface temperatures below 2°C in line with the Paris Agreement, clean burning hydrogen is set to become widespread fuel for use in transport, domestic heating, industrial power and feedstock industries replacing or supplementing the burning of fossil fuels. In 2021 the UK Government announced their vision to create a World Leading hydrogen economy in the next decade, with £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF) to support Hydrogen Projects (Department for Buisness, MP and MP 2021). At the time they estimated that the new hydrogen economy would support tens of thousands of jobs. Perception of Hydrogen is as a clean energy and therefore there will be less health risk than in traditional hydrocarbon energy sources such as coal, oil and natural gas. Focus has, rightly, been on the increased safety risk posed by the explosive range of the Hydrogen product and its propensity to leak but we risk forgetting that health risk will be present.