# How many people die to make a gallon of gasoline? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 7, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702 "2015-12-07T13:03:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/21 "2015-12-07T22:37:17Z")
I thought we made gasoline from oil. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/22 "2015-12-07T23:20:56Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > I thought we made gasoline from oil. As in “S-oil-ent Green”? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/23 "2015-12-07T23:43:50Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > As in “S-oil-ent Green”? You win the thread! ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/24 "2015-12-08T11:29:20Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Oil has been linked to terrorism and war for a long time. The production process is very dangerous, and accidents do happen. Also, burning the gas produces pollution, which causes a lot of deaths. Considering all of these issues, how many people die per gallon? Or alternatively, how many gallons to one life? Are you asking how many lives have been saved per gallon, or the other way around? Without gasoline (may I throw in diesel etc?)–historically as well as now–the world would be quite a different place. As with any infrastructure, it is a fundamental component of modernization. But calculating who lived because of gasoline (modernization has enabled an explosive growth of population) and who died (because of war for example) is not possible. Given the necessity of gasoline to create and support the world as we see it today, I’d WAG at least 6+billion people are alive today thanks to gasoline and its central place in modernization of the world…perhaps a few hundred million dead (mostly from wars). Note that those alive thanks to gasoline might otherwise be unborn, versus dead. Give or take. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/25 "2015-12-08T13:06:45Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > Are you asking how many lives have been saved per gallon, or the other way around? > > Without gasoline (may I throw in diesel etc?)–historically as well as now–the world would be quite a different place. As with any infrastructure, it is a fundamental component of modernization. But calculating who lived because of gasoline (modernization has enabled an explosive growth of population) and who died (because of war for example) is not possible. > > Given the necessity of gasoline to create and support the world as we see it today, I’d WAG at least 6+billion people are alive today thanks to gasoline and its central place in modernization of the world…perhaps a few hundred million dead (mostly from wars). Note that those alive thanks to gasoline might otherwise be unborn, versus dead. > > Give or take. No, I was asking how many died in oil wars and rig fires. I did not realize that it allowed the population explosion. ---
**Author:** ![IDtenT\_Error](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@IDtenT\_Error](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IDtenT_Error)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/26 "2015-12-08T16:25:49Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You win the thread! I’m going to try to steal that win: How many babies die to make a gallon of baby oil? ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/27 "2015-12-08T19:11:07Z")
In terms of deaths directly attributable to oil, first would be deaths due to pollution. [WHO](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/)estimates that about 4.3 million deaths per year are attributable to outdoor air pollution. It is not clear how much of this is attributable to gasoline versus how much is attributable to use of coal. I suspect that a strong majority is the later. So probably somewhere between say 500,000 and 2 million deaths would be attributable to gasoline. The second place I would look is traffic fatalities. [WHO](http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/traffic_deaths_number/en/) estimates them at 1.24 million deaths in 2010 (I can’t find other years). Next is probably going to be people killed in the Iraq war. The degree to which these deaths are attributable to oil is debatable, as are the total number of casualties. So this number can be any where between 0 and 220,000 per year ([assuming 1 million deaths in 4.5 years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORB_survey_of_Iraq_War_casualties)). Relative to these statistics, accidental deaths as part of extraction are going to be miniscule. So total deaths between 1.74 and 3.46 million a year seems good bounds. Since the vast majority of the deaths (polution and traffic deaths) are directly attributable to vehicle use, it seems fair to restrict ourselves to Motor fuel consumption. The stats I find indicate that world wide consuption is around[22 million barrels a day,](http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?product=gasoline&) which corresponds to 337 billion gallons per year. So this results in around between 100,000 and 200,000 gallons per death. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/28 "2015-12-08T19:43:58Z")
> [@IDtenT\_Error](#): > > I’m going to try to steal that win: > > How many babies die to make a gallon of baby oil? How is babby oil formed? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/29 "2015-12-08T20:46:43Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > In terms of deaths directly attributable to oil … > … > Relative to these statistics, accidental deaths as part of extraction are going to be miniscule. So total deaths between 1.74 and 3.46 million a year seems good bounds. > … > So this results in around between 100,000 and 200,000 gallons per death. Excellent Feynman analysis. I’m picking up from there… A typical American drives about 15,000 miles a year in a vehicle getting about 15 miles per gallon. And so burns about 1,000 gallons/year. For round numbers folks drive for about 50 years, age 16 to 66. Yes, most drive more years, but at a lesser rate in the earliest and final years of their driving career. So a typical American driver’s lifetime consumption is around 50,000 gallons. Your typical two-person two-driver household will therefore kill between one-half and one whole person over the course of their lives. You two and the couple next door collectively kill one for sure. I guess it’s worth it. :eek:😃 OTOH: Since those people are also going to die of something sometime, this implies gasoline side effects kill 1/4th to 1/2 the population. Which doesn’t pass my smell test. Your two-ish million is about 3% of the 60-ish million that **Snarky Kong** ’s post #2 says die every year. We’re off by a factor of roughly 10. So maybe we need some adjustments in your (or equally my) factors. I think a lot of the deaths due to air pollution are 3rd World deaths attributable to indoor air pollution. Cooking on a coal, wood, or dung-fueled indoor stove is very injurious to long-term health. And is all but universal in the poorer parts of Africa and South Asia. And clearly Americans burn a lot more gasoline per person-lifetime than do folks from other countries, both rich and poor. ---
**Author:** ![Smitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/30 "2015-12-08T21:37:50Z")
There are FAR more people alive because of oil and gasoline than are dead because of it. Ambulances run on it. Hospitals are powered because of it. Whatever the answer is, it is a negative number. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/31 "2015-12-08T22:29:52Z")
You guys are looking at this the wrong way. I think that the average human body has about 3000 kcals, give or take. The average barrel of oil, according to [this](https://www.unitjuggler.com/convert-energy-from-boe-to-kcal.html), has 1400000 kcal. So, assuming I didn’t drop a decimal point, that’s 466 humans per barrel of oil. However, you get 19 gallons of gasoline from a barrel of oil, so that’s 24 humans per gallon of gasoline. If you think about it, gasoline is kind of a bargain at 24 humans per gallon. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/32 "2015-12-08T22:43:35Z")
> [@Smitty](#): > > There are FAR more people alive because of oil and gasoline than are dead because of it. Ambulances run on it. Hospitals are powered because of it. Whatever the answer is, it is a negative number. Agreed. As several of us have said up-thread. But the number you’re talking about is a net number. We’ve been trying to figure out the negative contribution to the net: how many people die from gasoline. If you want to tackle the positive contribution, how many extra people are alive, we’d be much obliged. 🙂 Here’s a head start: Ambulances and hospitals are the least of the positive contribution. Gasoline (petroleum really) is the entire reason we’re not still living in the 1700s with 1700s population numbers. Every additional person alive since about 1850 owes their _birth_, not merely their emergency medical care, to petroleum. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/33 "2015-12-09T06:04:08Z")
Let’s not forget about Soylent Diesel, by the by. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/34 "2015-12-09T06:25:39Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Oil has been linked to terrorism and war for a long time. It’s been more than linked to imperialism for far longer. Entire countries have been created on maps and invaded and recreated because of what lies under. Indigenous populations tend to have not been a concern throughout the history of the internal combustion engine. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/35 "2015-12-09T06:49:50Z")
1,189 deaths in the US oil and gas industry from 2003 to 2013. That’s… ermm… a lot? [http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6420a4.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6420a4.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/36 "2015-12-09T08:12:07Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > 1,189 deaths in the US oil and gas industry from 2003 to 2013. That’s… ermm… a lot? > > [Occupational Fatalities During the Oil and Gas Boom — United States, 2003–2013](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6420a4.htm) Not really, compared to commercial fishing and logging. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/37 "2015-12-09T08:27:11Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m guessing the bumper sticker left out the word “commercial”. THe SL-1 incident was on a experimental research reactor, not a commercial power generation reactor. Kyshtym disaster 1957. Not known how many it killed but it was certainly more than 1. > **[Kyshtym disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster)** > > The Kyshtym disaster, sometimes referred to as the Mayak disaster or Ozyorsk disaster in newer sources, was a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a plutonium production site for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel reprocessing plant located in the closed city of Chelyabinsk-40 (now Ozyorsk) in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. > The disaster is the second worst nuclear incident by radioactivity released, after the Chernobyl disaster and was ... Yeah it was a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, not a power plant but thats part of the nuclear fuel cycle anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/38 "2015-12-09T12:48:53Z")
For those who think the world was a lot cleaner before gasoline engines, I have one word: horseshit. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/39 "2015-12-09T14:40:52Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > It’s been more than linked to imperialism for far longer. Entire countries have been created on maps and invaded and recreated because of what lies under. Indigenous populations tend to have not been a concern throughout the history of the internal combustion engine. Yeah, we all long for the good old days before oil and the ICE when the indigenous populations were treated with kindness and respect, and when no imperialistic countries did things like change the map or invade other countries for resources!! Man, don’t we all wish those good old days were back?? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702/40 "2015-12-09T14:59:38Z")
Do the deaths due to pollution include deaths due to CO2-induced climate change? That’s estimated at 400,000 per year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-to-make-a-gallon-of-gasoline/739702.md?page=3)