Methane emissions linked to heart failure in Oklahoma, north Texas and Alabama

About 5.1 million people in the United States have heart failure.
One in 9 deaths in 2009 included heart failure as contributing cause.
About half of people who develop heart failure die within 5 years of diagnosis.
Heart failure costs the nation an estimated $32 billion each year. This total includes the cost of health care services, medications to treat heart failure, and missed days of work.
Heart failure is more common in some areas of the United States than in others. Below is a map showing the rate of death from heart failure by county during 2007–2009.
[link to www.cdc.gov]

As seen in the map, Oklahoma, north Texas and Alabama have the highest rate, while Nevada and Arizona have the lowest rate. Guess why?

U.S. Methane Emissions Vastly Underestimated: Study
The oil and gas industry, largely in the south-central U.S., may be emitting nearly five times the methane that scientists previously estimated.
The study showed that the EPA’s data most significantly underestimate methane emissions in the south-central U.S., particularly Texas and Oklahoma, where methane emissions tied to oil and gas production were up to 4.9 times higher than EPA estimates.
[link to www.climatecentral.org]

Coalbed methane grew out of venting methane from coal seams. Some coal beds have long been known to be "gassy," and as a safety measure, boreholes were drilled into the seams from the surface, and the methane allowed to vent before mining.
Coalbed methane as a resource apart from coal mining began in the early 1980s in the Black Warrior Basin of northern Alabama.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]