Study: Some People Think Drilling Might Be Making Them Sick

From Protecting Our Waters:
People living near gas hydraulic fracturing sites are more concerned than had been thought about possible health effects of the drilling, U.S. researchers say.
Dr. Poune Saberi of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology and colleagues collected responses from 72 adults visiting a primary care physician’s office in the hydrofracking-heavy area of Bradford County, Pa.
The study participants volunteered to complete an investigator-facilitated survey. Twenty-two percent of the participants said the hydrofracking might be the cause of such health concerns as sinus problems, sleeping difficulties and gastrointestinal problems.
“Almost a quarter of participants consider natural gas operations to be a contributor to their health issues, indicating that there is clearly a concern among residents that should be addressed,” Saberi said in a statement.
Within the 22 percent of responders, 13 percent viewed drilling to be the cause of their current health complaints and 9 percent were concerned future health problems can be caused by natural gas operations, said Saberi, the principal investigator.
The previous health complaints by participants were thought to be anecdotal in nature as they were individual cases reported publicly only by popular media, the study said.
So 13 percent of 72 people - in other words, 9 people - think that drilling is causing them health problems.  9 percent of those 72 - in other words, 6 people - think that maybe it could cause them health problems in the future.  That's the study.  There is no medical testing that has concluded that any of the health problems these people are experiencing actually were caused by drilling.  The study was just surveying the patients to find out if they thought drilling was endangering them.

I knew before this study that there are some people living near drilling operations who say that the drilling is causing health problems for them.  In fact, the most surprising thing to me is that the percentage of people who thought so wasn't higher.

I think that many would prefer seeing funding being used to conduct environmental and epidemiological testing to determine what the actual dangers of drilling may be rather than to conduct surveys which are basically just finding out what the perception of fracking is.

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