Health Impacts
MedPage Today has an interesting article on the claimed health impacts of increased Marcellus exploration in Pennsylvania. The take-away conclusions: "A few people have had clearly documented health problems related to the Marcellus gas boom, but these were occupational exposures in rig workers. Some aspects of gas drilling and production release toxins into the environment, but the level of exposure to the public is uncertain and no links to specific instances of disease have been confirmed, and may never be." (Emphasis is ours.) And regarding groundwater contamination due to frac operations in particular: "But in that scenario the fracking chemicals would presumably be highly diluted. Rob Jackson, PhD, of Duke University, said preliminary results from a study he and his colleagues conducted in northeastern Pennsylvania showed no evidence of fracking fluids or brine in well water sampled from more than 200 sites." (Emphasis is also ours.)
Read the whole thing.
