11.9.13

Unconventional Shale Gas Development:

Summary Report of Fracking & Public Health Summit held November 1-2, 2013

Fourteen health professionals* attended a public health summit to review the mounting evidence of environmental and occupational harm to public health associated with unconventional shale gas development. The Summit was cosponsored by David Carpenter, M.D., and the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany and Barbara Warren, RN, MS, Executive Director of Citizens' Environmental Coalition. These health professionals initiated a process of assessing risk factors and health effects with the goal of developing public health recommendations, and collaborating in the production of a policy paper.

Unconventional shale gas development involves new technology and intensive methods to extract natural gasimposed on an unprecedented scale in close proximity to homes, schools, and businesses. Prior to a thorough review in an environmental impact statement, the oil and gas industry sought and obtained exemptions from several critical national environmental and health laws. States that traditionally rely on federal environmental laws for protection were ill-prepared to establish regulatory controls and instead relied heavily on the industry for basic information about safety. The full scope and magnitude of unconventional shale gas development are becoming apparent with accumulating evidence of accidents and spills, toxic emissions, contamination of land, air and water, and adverse health impacts to people, fish, wildlife, pets and other domestic animals. Additional concerns include the long-term impact on global warming and our continued reliance on fossil fuels.

The true costs to society of unconventional gas development have not been fully evaluated. As health professionals we recognize the damages caused by public health disasters in the past—the unregulated use of lead and asbestos by industry and the unsatisfactory disposal of chemical wastes at Love Canal and other hazardous waste sites are examples of toxic contamination that caused untold pain and suffering to individuals and families and that cost society billions of dollars. Workers in the oil and gas industry have a fatality rate on the job that is 7 times the national average, and NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) has recently documented silica exposures for workers engaged in shale gas development that are more than 10 times the legal OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) limit. There is a need to act quickly to prevent another devastating public health disaster.

Environmental protection is an essential first line of defense for public health. In the absence of strong environmental regulation, oversight and enforcement, the full burden of unconventional shale gas development has the potential to fall completely upon the health and quality of life of the public and on future generations. Faced with austerity budgets, public health departmentsare ill-equipped to prevent harm. Many of the potential harms, such as contamination by radioactive substances, cannot be mitigated fully after the fact. Major energy choices, such as whether and how unconventional shale gas development might be pursued, need much more careful consideration.

Public policies and actions are needed in the near term to address these serious health issues as well as those due tothe related infrastructure (compressor stations, pipelines, and storage facilities) being planned. Longer-term policies and actions are also needed. We are committed to working to develop sound public health policy recommendations on theses critical issues.

* Health professionals included medical doctors, researchers, scientists, toxicologists, occupational, environmental health and ethics specialists, pediatricians, veterinary and wildlife specialists, and a nurse.

Summit Participants

Michelle Bamberger, MS, DVM, Veterinarian

David R Brown ScD.

Public Health Toxicologist

Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project

Sheila Bushkin-Bedient, MD,MPH

Member- Institute for Health & the Environment

Member- Concerned Health Professionals of NY

David O. Carpenter, MD, Environmental Health Researcher

Director, Institute for Health and the Environment

University at Albany

Larysa Dyrszka, MD, Pediatrician

Yuri A. Gorby, PhD

Howard N. Blitman Chair

Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Jake Hays, MA

Program Director of the Health-Energy Nexus

Physicians, Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy

Kathleen Nolan, MD, Pediatrician

Robert E. Oswald, Ph.D.,

Professor of Molecular Medicine

Cornell University

Mary O' Reilly, PhD, Certified Industrial Hygienist, Certified Professional Ergonomist

Adjunct ProfessorSUNY School of Public Health

Advisory Board member of the Institute for Health and the Environment

Jonathan Rosen MS, Certified Industrial Hygienist, Consultant

Ward B. Stone, MS, ScD (Hon) SUNY, Wildlife Pathologist, Consultant

Leslie A. Walleigh, MD, MPH

Medical and Occupational Health Consultant

Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project

Barbara Warren, RN, MS

Executive Director, Citizens' Environmental Coalition