Environmental and health impacts of ‘fracking’: why epidemiological studies are necessary

Finkel, Madelon Lubin; Hays, Jake

doi:10.1136/jech-2015-205487

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…As with many new industrial toxicity cases, the absence of epidemiological studies has created great uncertainty about health outcomes (Finkel & Hays, 2015;Saunders, McCoy, Goldstrin, Saunders, & Munroe, 2018). Potential adverse human health effects of exposure to chemicals used in shale development include clinical and subclinical dermal, respiratory, neurological and immuno-symptoms, and possibly cancer, endocrine disruption, cardiovascular and kidney disease, as well as negative reproductive health effects (Sangaramoorthy et al, 2016).…”

Section: Risk Perceptions and Health Effects Of Shale Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health risk perception and shale development in the UK and US

Harthorn

Halcomb

Partridge

et al. 2019

Health, Risk & Society

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In this paper we examine discourse in public deliberations in pre-development locales in the UK and US about advantages and disadvantages of future shale development ('fracking'). We aimed to understand how people anticipate potential health effects, broadly construed, of environmental toxicity and disturbance in the context of planned, but not yet implemented, energy development. In day-long deliberations with small, diverse groups in two cities in each country (London, Cardiff in the UK; Los Angeles, Santa Barbara in the US), participants discussed impacts on health and wellbeing using three main rubrics: 'It's money or health,' 'Why take chances?' and 'Beyond the tipping point.' Throughout, participants framed health as an intrinsically moral issue, with collective responsibility as a dominant normative frame. We identify the concept of

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Section: Risk Perceptions and Health Effects Of Shale Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health risk perception and shale development in the UK and US

Harthorn

Halcomb

Partridge

et al. 2019

Health, Risk & Society

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“…UNGD operates on an industrial scale. It involves clearing land, building multi-well pads, drilling both vertically and horizontally, and injecting millions of gallons of highly pressurized water combined with chemical additives and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2019.108598 Received 18 March 2019; Received in revised form 18 July 2019; Accepted 19 July 2019 sand and/or silica into shale formations, which releases natural gas (Adgate et al, 2014;Finkel and Hays, 2015). By 2017, shale gas accounted for nearly two-thirds of U.S. natural gas production (U.S. EIA, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unconventional natural gas development and adverse birth outcomes in Pennsylvania: The potential mediating role of antenatal anxiety and depression

Casey

Goin

Rudolph

et al. 2019

Environmental Research

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Background: Studies have reported associations between unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) and adverse birth outcomes. None have evaluated potential mediating mechanisms. Objectives: To evaluate associations between (1) UNGD and antenatal anxiety and depression and (2) antenatal anxiety and depression and preterm birth (< 37 weeks gestation) and reduced term birth weight, (3) stochastic direct and indirect effects of UNGD on preterm birth and term birth weight operating through antenatal anxiety and depression, and (4) effect modification by family-level socioeconomic status. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included mothers without prevalent anxiety or depression at time of conception, who delivered at Geisinger in Pennsylvania between January 2009-January 2013. We assembled phase-specific UNGD activity data from public sources. Mothers were categorized as exposed (quartile 4) or unexposed (quartiles 1-3) based on average daily inverse distance-squared UNGD activity metric between conception and the week prior to anxiety or depression (cases) or the pregnancy-average daily metric (noncases). We estimated associations with a doubly robust estimator (targeted minimum loss-based estimation) and adjusted for potential individual-and community-level confounding variables. Results: Analyses included 8,371 births to 7,715 mothers, 12.2% of whom had antenatal anxiety or depression. We found 4.3 additional cases of antenatal anxiety or depression per 100 women (95% CI: 1.5, 7.0) under the scenario where all mothers lived in the highest quartile of UNGD activity versus quartiles 1-3. The risk difference appeared larger among mothers receiving Medical Assistance (indicator of low family income) compared to those who did not, 5.6 (95% CI: 0.5, 10.6) versus 2.9 (95% CI:-0.7, 6.5) additional cases of antenatal anxiety or depression per 100 women. We found no relationship between antenatal anxiety or depression and adverse birth outcomes and no mediation effect either overall or when stratifying by Medical Assistance. Conclusion: We observed a relationship between UNGD activity and antenatal anxiety and depression, which did not mediate the overall association between UNGD activity and adverse birth outcomes.

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“…Although geologists have known about the deposits of shale gas for decades (Selley, 1987), the materiality of this type of unconventional hydrocarbons has become accessible at scale only in the 2000s. The development of this resource has been controversial and socially contested in every country in which it took place, largely due to its potential environmental, health, and social impacts (Finkel and Hays, 2015;Hays et al, 2017;Jacquet, 2014;Shonkoff et al, 2014;Szolucha, 2016). Lancashire in north-west England as well as the village of Żurawlów in south-east Poland, where I conducted my research 2 , have made a name for themselves as locations of some of the most sustained protests against fracking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A social take on unconventional resources: Materiality, alienation and the making of shale gas in Poland and the United Kingdom

Szołucha

2019

Energy Research & Social Science

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Unlike conventional resources, unconventional gas (such as shale gas) is trapped in low permeability rock, from which it does not flow naturally. Hence, its extraction is costly and requires sophisticated technologies. Building on my ethnographic work in northwest England and southeast Poland, I explore people's engagements with shale gas materialities to show how the category of the 'unconventional resource'-framed by geological and engineering sciences-has more than merely technical implications. Instead, shale gas produces new sociotechnical relations by trying to remove itself from social entanglements. These attempts fail to contain the unruly forces of the subsurface and local impacts, bringing the alienating dynamics of resource-making into sharp relief. The irregularities of materials and infrastructural limits, integral to the socially dis-embedded 'unconventionality' of the developments, inadvertently turn shale gas projects into a site of the political.

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Environmental and health impacts of ‘fracking’: why epidemiological studies are necessary

Cited by 24 publications

References 4 publications

Health risk perception and shale development in the UK and US

Health risk perception and shale development in the UK and US

Unconventional natural gas development and adverse birth outcomes in Pennsylvania: The potential mediating role of antenatal anxiety and depression

A social take on unconventional resources: Materiality, alienation and the making of shale gas in Poland and the United Kingdom

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