By Christine Lepisto / Source: TreeHugger

fracking

“UOG operations release large amounts of reproductive, immunological, and neurological toxicants, carcinogens as well as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) into the environment that may negatively affect human health.”

The claim is quite dramatic and makes for a good press release, benefiting the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) campaign against unconventional oil and natural gas (UOG) drilling, widely known as ‘fracking’.

Don’t look to this study for an objective and well-reasoned scientific analysis of the relative risks for people living near fracking operations, though. You won’t find any facts supporting what constitutes “large amounts”, a claim which must be questioned in light of the fact that these kind of operations typically are guilty of releasing minute amounts of the really bad chemicals, leaving everyone in a grey zone of “just how much of this stuff do we need to be exposed to for it to harm us?”

Much of the study makes allegations about terrible health effects attributed to a wide array of chemicals but a close review of the paper raises questions. For example, a whole series of the publications reviewed relate to the effects of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), including low birth weights, low testosterone levels, and abnormal menstruation. Huh? PCBs have been banned since the late 1970s. You can be pretty sure that no one is pumping PCBs into or out of their fracking process.

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