Monday, October 19, 2015

Fracking Studies Overwhelmingly Indicate Threats to Public Health

The vast majority of studies conclude that fracking worsens air quality, contaminates water sources and harms public health, according to a new review of scientific literature.

Photo credit: AP/Mike Groll
More than 15 million Americans live within a mile of a fracking site that has been drilled in the past 15 years. Numerous studies in the past decade have indicated that natural gas drilling and fracking are inherently dangerous, posing threats to the air and water and to residents living close by, according to the report’s authors.

A compendium of fracking research published this week by Concerned Health Professionals of New York and Physicians for Social Responsibility, two public health nonprofits, includes reviews of more than 500 fracking-related studies and concludes that there is "no evidence that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health."

"For years we heard stories. … Now that anecdotal evidence is being confirmed by scientific evidence," Kathleen Nolan, a pediatrician and bioethicist in New York and one of the authors of the report, said in a conference call. "There's just no justification to exposing people to these risks."

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