Study finds fracking bad for babies’ health
Researchers studied births in Pennsylvania
Fracking can damage the health and development of babies whose mothers live near shale gas drilling and fracking sites, according to a new study of more than 1.1 million births in Pennsylvania from 2004 through 2013.
The study, released Wednesday, found that infants living within a half-mile of a fracked shale gas well were 25 percent more likely to have low birth weight — below 5.5 pounds — putting them at greater risk of infant mortality, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, asthma, lower school test scores and lifetime earnings, and higher rates of social welfare program participation.
The average weights of those low birth weight babies also was significantly lower than low birth rate babies whose mothers don’t live near wells.
Co-authored by researchers at Princeton University, the University of Chicago and UCLA, the peer-reviewed study said about 29,000 of the approximately 4 million babies born each year in the U.S. live within a half-mile of a shale gas well “and that these births therefore may be at higher risk of poor birth outcomes.”
“This study provides the strongest large-scale evidence of a link between the pollution that stems from hydraulic fracturing activities and our health, specifically the health of babies,” said Michael Greenstone, an economics professor and director of
the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago anda study co-author.
Titled “Hydraulic Fracturing and Infant Health: New Evidence from Pennsylvania,” the study also found elevated health risks for babies extending up to two miles from a shale gas well. Infants who lived between a half-mile and two miles from a shale gas well still had an elevated risk of low birth weight, but it was much diminished compared to those living closer.
The study compared the health records of infants born to mothers living at different distances from fracked shale gas well sites, both before and after the wells were developed. It was published in the online journal Science Advances.
Mr. Greenstone said study findings could be used by local and state government officials to better assess the costs and benefits of allowing shale gas drilling and fracking in their communities.
“Given the growing evidence that pollution affects babies in utero, it should not be surprising that fracking, which is a heavy industrial activity, has negative effects on infants,” said Jane Currie, co-author of the study. She is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University and director of the Center for Health and Wellbeing in the university’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
She said little to no impact on infant birth weight was found beyond a two mile radius of well sites.
Katherine Meckel, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California in Los Angeles, said that while the link between health problems and pollution from the shale gas development process is clear, the pathway by which the pollution impacts infants is not. She said the exposure could come from air or water pollution, chemicals stored on site, or an increase in diesel emissions from truck traffic tothe drilling site.
“Until we can determine the source of this pollution and contain it,” she said, “local lawmakers will be forced to continue to make the difficult decision of whether to allow fracking in order to boost their local economies — despite the health implications — or ban it altogether, missing out on the jobs and revenue it would bring.”
Earlier studies by Ms. Currie and Mr. Greenstone have shown that the average household near shale gas drilling sites benefits by an average increases in wages and gas lease royalty payments, jobs and housing prices.
But Ms. Currie said the housing price increases could decline as more information is discovered about the negative health and environmental impacts of shalegas development.
“As these results and others on the health impacts from hydraulic fracturing become mainstreamed into the consciousness of homeowners and home buyers,” Ms. Currie said, “the local economic benefits could decrease.”
The health benefits of those economic improvements in Pennsylvania’s most heavily drilled regions also were cited in another report, commissioned by Energy In Depth, a pro-shale gas development organization established by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, that found overall mortality rates declined or remained stable in Bradford, Greene, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Washington counties from 2000 to 2014.
The 25-page, non-peer reviewed report, written by Susan Mickley, president of Strat ComPA Consulting Services in Allentown, analyzed state Department of Health mortality statistics and found no association between shale gas development and a health problems, including infant mortality, cancer, heart and respiratory disease, fluand pneumonia.
The Energy In Depth report, released Tuesday, said shale gas gas development was not associated with an increase in infant mortality in the six counties, but did not address other low birth weight health impacts that were the focus of the Princeton study.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1983, or on Twitter @donhopey