Pennsylvania residents gas wells are twice as likely to skin problems and residents of the airways, reporting live away, says a new independent study. The research aims to shed light on how the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can affect the health of the people to shed. While hydraulic fracturing has a lot of fears of groundwater and polluted air dirty actually been charged small when it comes to residential areas attracted.
Study the National Institutes of Health (NIH), released Wednesday, is based on a survey of 492 people in 180 randomly selected households in southern Pennsylvania. Each house uses and water and are found in areas of active gas wells. The team led by Yale toured the area, ask about the frequency and the time family members had seen a doctor for skin and respiratory complications such as persistent skin rashes, nosebleeds, sore throat and hair loss without explanation. The researchers then these data with the proximity of each house well compared to a gas.
They found that "the number of health complaints per person was reported was higher for residents within a mile, compared with more than two kilometers from the nearest" gas wells, according to the study in Environmental Health Perspectives ". Near sources of natural gas can with the prevalence of symptoms of health are associated. "
National, more than 15.3 million Americans lived within a mile of oil or gas from the year 2000, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.
The NIH survey does not provide hydraulic fracturing as the cause for the difference in health. But there are concerns and emphasize the need for further investigation, Meredith Stowe, a research associate at the Yale School of Medicine, the Washington Post said. "This is just the beginning," he said. "More research is needed on the road."
Organizers rejected fracturing research as a basis, according to the Post. Katie Brown, a spokesman for the group of energy pro-deep drilling, said it was "just a survey" contradicts the evidence of the direct measurements of the pollution on fracking sites.