Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In addition to the chemicals, fracking waste water may also contain sub-
stances from deep underground such as strontium, benzene, toluene and
Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) such as Radium 226.
2.4 Health Impacts
In addition to potential problems caused by water contamination, fracking
for shale gas has also been linked to increased levels of air pollution and
associated health problems. Air pollution was identified as a 'high risk' by
the European Commission study mentioned above.
In 2013 Public Health England (PHE), an executive agency of the Depart-
ment of Health, produced a draft report Review of the Potential Public Health
Impacts of Exposures to Chemical and Radioactive Pollutants as a Result of
Shale Gas Extraction. The general conclusion was that ''the potential risks to
public health from exposure to the emissions associated with shale gas ex-
traction are low if the operations are properly run and regulated''.
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With
regard to air pollution, PHE concluded that ''the available evidence suggests
that while emissions from individual well pads are low and unlikely to have
an impact on local air quality, the cumulative impact of a number of well
pads may be locally and regionally quite significant''.
An initial assessment by McKenzie et al.
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looking at birth outcomes found
an association between the density and proximity of natural gas wells within
a 10-mile radius of a mother's home and the prevalence of congenital heart
defects and neural tube defects (defects of the brain, spine or spinal cord).
The authors stated, however, that more detail was needed on levels of ex-
posure during pregnancy.
A separate assessment by McKenzie et al.
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looked at the risks from ex-
posure to hydrocarbons, notably benzene, near fracking wells in Colorado. It
found that the risk of cancer was increased for people living within half a
mile of a well compared to those living more than half a mile away - from 6
in a million to 10 in a million. It also found that non-cancer health impacts
were greater for those living nearer wells.
PHE indicated that their assessment was in some cases based on limited
evidence - for example, at the time of their report, there had only been one
peer-reviewed assessment of the health impacts of air emissions from shale
gas operations: the 2012 McKenzie study mentioned previously. However, as
the US group, Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSE),
has written, with reference to the health impacts of fracking, ''lack of data is
not an indication of an absence of harm''.
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According to PSE, history offers
several examples of where ''health-damaging industrial activities were scaled
much more rapidly than the science of its health effects and subsequent
evidence-based policy development'', including tobacco, PCBs, asbestos and
leaded petrol. PSE conclude that ''the science should be put before risky
industrial processes are allowed to be scaled''.
In the absence of adequate data, we believe the Precautionary Principle
should apply. Friends of the Earth agrees with the authors of a paper in the
