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Environment

Major Fracking Concerns Lack Scientific Backing: ‘Basically Not Using Science’

Jul. 23, 2012 11:10am Liz Klimas

Science Doesnt Support Opponents Arguments Against Fracking for Natural Gas

According to science and available data, some concerns about fracking are unfounded. (Photo: AP//Mike Groll)

PITTSBURGH (The Blaze/AP) — Some, including “Gasland” filmmaker Josh Fox, would have you believe natural gas drilling using a method called hydraulic fracturing resulted in increased cancer rates. But, science and even members of a national cancer society would say otherwise.

In the debate over “fracking,” opponents are now being accused of distorting some of the facts.

Critics of fracking often raise alarms about groundwater pollution, air pollution, and cancer risks, and there are still many uncertainties. But some of the claims have little – or nothing- to back them.

For example, reports that breast cancer rates rose in a region with heavy gas drilling are false, researchers told The Associated Press.

Fears that natural radioactivity in drilling waste could contaminate drinking water aren’t being confirmed by monitoring, either.

And concerns about air pollution from the industry often don’t acknowledge that natural gas is a far cleaner burning fuel than coal.

“The debate is becoming very emotional. And basically not using science” on either side, said Avner Vengosh, a Duke University professor studying groundwater contamination who has been praised and criticized by both sides.

Anti-fracking signs expressing its negative effects that some experts say are untrue. (Photo: AP/Mike Groll)

Shale gas drilling has attracted national attention because advances in technology have unlocked billions of dollars of gas reserves, leading to a boom in production, jobs, and profits, as well as concerns about pollution and public health. Shale is a gas-rich rock formation thousands of feet underground, and the gas is freed through a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which large volumes of water, plus sand and chemicals, are injected to break the rock apart.

The Marcellus Shale covers large parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia, while the Barnett Shale is in north Texas. Many other shale deposits have been discovered.

One of the clearest examples of a misleading claim comes from north Texas, where gas drilling began in the Barnett Shale about 10 years ago.

Opponents of fracking say breast cancer rates have spiked exactly where intensive drilling is taking place – and nowhere else in the state. The claim is used in a letter that was sent to New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo by environmental groups and by Fox, the Oscar-nominated director of “Gasland,” a film that criticizes the industry. Fox, who lives in Brooklyn, has a new short film called “The Sky is Pink.”

But researchers haven’t seen a spike in breast cancer rates in the area, said Simon Craddock Lee, a professor of medical anthropology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

David Risser, an epidemiologist with the Texas Cancer Registry, said in an email that researchers checked state health data and found no evidence of an increase in the counties where the spike supposedly occurred.

And Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a major cancer advocacy group based in Dallas, said it sees no evidence of a spike, either.

“We don’t,” said Chandini Portteus, Komen’s vice president of research, adding that they sympathize with people’s fears and concerns, but “what we do know is a little bit, and what we don’t know is a lot” about breast cancer and the environment.

Yet Fox tells viewers in an ominous voice that “In Texas, as throughout the United States, cancer rates fell – except in one place- in the Barnett Shale.”

Lee called the claims of an increase “a classic case of the ecological fallacy” because they falsely suggest that breast cancer is linked to just one factor. In fact, diet, lifestyle and access to health care also play key roles.

Fox responded to questions by citing a press release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that doesn’t support his claim, and a newspaper story that Risser said is “not based on a careful statistical analysis of the data.”

When Fox was told that Texas cancer researchers said rates didn’t increase, he replied in an email that the claim of unusually high breast cancer rates was “widely reported” and said there is “more than enough evidence to warrant much deeper study.”

$The makers of "FrackNation" posted this billboard in New York near Pennsylvania correcting what it believes are some of the untruths spoken by anti-fracking activists. (Photo: AP/Adam Hunger)$

The makers of "FrackNation" posted this billboard in New York near Pennsylvania correcting what it believes are some of the untruths spoken by anti-fracking activists. (Photo: AP/Adam Hunger)

A group of documentary filmmakers are actually creating a response to “Gasland” that shares some of these scientific untruths. The film is called FrackNation, which The Blaze reported on with an interview from the filmmakers back in March. Learn more about the film from its makers:

Another instance where fears haven’t been confirmed by science is the concern that radioactivity in drilling fluids could threaten drinking water supplies.

Critics of fracking note the deep underground water that comes up along with gas has high levels of natural radioactivity. Since much of that water, called flowback, was once being discharged into municipal sewage treatment plants and then rivers in Pennsylvania, there was concern about public water supplies.

But in western Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority did extensive tests and didn’t find a problem in area rivers. State environmental officials said monitoring at public water supply intakes across the state showed non-detectable levels of radiation, and the two cases that showed anything were at background levels.

Concerns about the potential problem also led to regulatory changes. An analysis by The Associated Press of data from Pennsylvania found that of the 10.1 million barrels of shale wastewater generated in the last half of 2011, about 97 percent was either recycled, sent to deep-injection wells, or sent to a treatment plant that doesn’t discharge into waterways.

Critics of fracking also repeat claims of extreme air pollution threats, even as evidence mounts that the natural gas boom is in some ways contributing to cleaner air.

Marcellus air pollution “will cause a massive public health crisis,” claims a section of the Marcellus Shale Protest website.

Yet data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that the shale gas boom is helping to turn many large power plants away from coal, which emits far more pollution. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency passed new rules to force drillers to limit releases of methane from wells and pumping stations.

Some environmental groups now say that natural gas is having a positive effect on air quality.

Earlier this year, the group PennFuture said gas is a much cleaner burning fuel, and it called gas-fired power plants “orders of magnitude cleaner” than coal plants.

Marcellus Shale Protest said in response to a question about its claims that “any possible benefit in electric generation must be weighed against the direct harm from the industrial processes of gas extraction.”

One expert said there’s an actual psychological process at work that sometimes blinds people to science, on the fracking debate and many others.

“You can literally put facts in front of people, and they will just ignore them,” said Mark Lubell, the director of the Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior at the University of California, Davis.

Lubell said the situation, which happens on both sides of a debate, is called “motivated reasoning.” Rational people insist on believing things that aren’t true, in part because of feedback from other people who share their views, he said.

Vengosh noted the problem of spinning science isn’t new, or limited to one side in the gas drilling controversy. For example, industry supporters have claimed that drilling never pollutes water wells, when state regulators have confirmed cases where it has. He says the key point is that science is slow, and research into gas drilling’s many possible effects are in the early stages, and much more work remains to be done.

“Everyone takes what they want to see,” Vengosh said, adding that he hopes that the fracking debate will become more civilized as scientists obtain more hard data.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (78)

pdw
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:49pm
When all the lies start you know where and who’s pocket they their hands are occupying . Follow the money trail, it isn’t even the pay and the retirement they get it is the payoffs from all their comrades-in-arms. When they become honest they will have basically the same pay, medical and retirement that we the tax paying Joe Slobs receive.

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Jerry Frey
Posted on July 24, 2012 at 2:03am
You can’t play around with a community’s water supply.

http://napoleonlive.info/economics/opinion-about-fracking/

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Cataclysm
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 6:38pm
As the radiation scare….. how many places also have granite in the area. granite gives of radation, yes even the stone you put in your kitchen or bath room. The Governer of Maine gets more radation from the granite in the building than Nuclear power plant workers.

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BannedByHuffpo
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 6:18pm
My favorite trick to play in progressive lib Luddites is to time it just right around a solar eclipse and tell them that I’m going to make the sun “disappear”. These suckers fall for it every time. Oh, and it works making the moon “disappear” too. He he he …

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Larry E
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 6:05pm
Wasn’t it Glorious Leader who told us all that, unlike those nasty Republicans, he would use science to make decisions? Okay, just checking because his EPA and its civilian acolytes have been using pseudo-science on pollution and global warming to scare the stupid and the ignorant for the whole time he’s been in office. NASA instead of doing real science has been pushing global warming and sucking up to Mslms.

I wonder if these fools use any form of transportation other than shank’s mare or bicycles (which doubtless cause some pollution in their manufacture and maintenance), heat or light their homes, use anything made from plastic or synthetic materials (made from oil or natural gas), or any other products of modern technology. I wonder if they raise all their own food totally organically thereby not using anything derived from oil or gas via transportation.

It’s always easy to see the idiots, they always jump on the latest (usually environmentalist) bandwagon.

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dds2th
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:29pm
Follow the money!! Who profits when the USA is dependent on foreign oil? OPEC.!!!! Who is financing the enviornmental groups who stop the USA from development of our own natural energy resources?? The enviornmental movement is determined to destroy our country. Our enemies are determined to destroy our country. These enviornmentalists are THE UEFUL IDIOTS working with the enemies of our country either out of malicious purpose or simply out of stupidity. They must be defeated and the November election is the time to start..We must demand the those trying to destroy our country be brought to justice. An easy way to determine which politician is geting paid off is to see which ones support enviornmental policies destructive to our country.

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CALABASH72
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:27pm
Not all fracced up like it used to be. Fact. Fraccing a well is done thousands of feet below the water table. Most of the wells are over 7000 feet deep. For you Dopes thats well over 1 mile deep. The gas travels up a pipe that is cemented into another pipe that is cemented into the ground all the way through the water zone. You see, water kills a gas well. If you want to stop the flow of gas you just add water. So mixing the gas with water is bad. The left needs to find something else to cry about.

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jungle J
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:55pm
paint with lead in it.

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jungle J
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:49pm
there are still many uncertainties………….fracturing, or fracking, in which large volumes of water, plus sand and chemicals…what chemicals?

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NotHereToJudge
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:21pm
WE ARE AMERICA! Not a place like any other! We the people, under GOD the creator & SPIRIT that gives us life, BUILT THIS COUNTRY! We designed & built a government that’s intended to SERVE the members of THIS country! A country that’s humble enough to help those around the world that are humble enough to receive our help! WE OWE NO ONE, for we’ve paid with our money, our sweat & the blood of our people! Through our loyalty to serving GOD & our neighbors with Love, Compassion & pride for the Strength that we’ve Received! WE’RE THE BUILDERS & just like a building that’s suffered damage by a storm or an attack by an enemy, WE CAN RESTORE OUR COUNTRY! We can cut out the cancer that attacks from within! WE ARE 1 NATION, UNDER GOD! HE has given us the RIGHT to LIFE, LIBERTY & THE PURSUIT of HAPPINES! GOD is our CREATOR & THROUGH US HE creates the businesses that SERVE US as well as a gov. that is to SERVE US! WE as a country seek to LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS who’re willing to receive it! Those that hate & seek to destroy are blind to HIM who they seek to attack! The One who IS cannot be destroyed but those who seek to destroy HIM shall reap their own destruction! People throuhout the world find Hope in America because of these truths! Truth that lives in every person! We can‘t standby as we’re attacked form within! We’ll defend our GOD as we defend rights HE bestows upon US! No gov. or people of tyranny can prosper or gain honor! Tyranny is met by by GOD’s justice!

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fmadsen
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:04pm
The modern alchemists are alive an well. They practice junk science or emotionally based science, based on their political agenda.

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The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 2:50pm
This is one of those issues that is basically won already, but we need to carry it across the finish line. “Watermelon” (green on the outside, red on the inside) sciences are still being taught in schools.

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thebabyguy
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 2:39pm
If you don’t have any facts to back up your claims, then just make the damn things up. See, that was easy!

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Micah.Stone
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 2:09pm
“Major Fracking Concerns Lack Scientific Backing: ‘Basically Not Using Science’”

So, THE FRACKING HOAX = THE GLOBULL WARMING HOAX.
One good eco-fascist, lunatic-left, d-cRAT socialist hoax deserves another eco-fascist, lunatic-left, d-cRAT socialist hoax.

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762x51
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 2:07pm
Unlike the leftist morons opposed to fracking, I have actually worked in the oil field and seen it done. Fracking has been around for over 60 years and there has NEVER been ANY proof that it causes the problems they claim it does.

Fracking = global warming Same scam, different tack.

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Delores at CH WV
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 1:50pm
Just look at your electricity bills, year to date each month, if that don’t change your mind about fracken than there is no hope for you to survive in the USA! Wake up to the truth when you can’t afford to turn on your electricity.

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hauschild
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 1:19pm
“Major Fracking Concerns Lack Scientific Backing: Basically Not Using Science”

How does this differ from every other liberal concern over the past 100 years? Liberals exists to live off a host, and the host in our case is the taxpayer. It’s because these people have no confidence in their abilities to compete, so they invent “crises”, which gives them a job and heckuva comfortable retirement.

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JQuentinEvermann
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 1:11pm
I have no idea what i’m yelling about, but look at me, i care enough to yell about something! I’m too stupid to understand crazy things like math and science and i’m frightened by what i don’t understand! I dislike things and like other things and my sign says as much! I think the answer to all our problems is to replace the discovery of fire with something else that i’m too stupid to understand will probably never happen! Make things perfect or i will continue to protest! Look at me!

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tothepoint
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 1:06pm
The fracking hoax scare will go the way of the “Global Warming” aka “Climate Change” hoax and scare.
Those who perpetuate these hoaxes are eventually found out and they move on to some other way to scare Americans and redistribute America’s wealth.
We are on to these liars.

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historyguy48
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 1:04pm
Comrades we have known for over 120 years that Climate change is here! Yes, Comrade Marx and Comrade Engles announced global warming back in the 1880′s! Because they said so, it must be true!
Still selling that bridge in Brooklyn, hurry! I’ve reduced the price for only a few suckers, I mean buyers!

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Simple-James
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 12:56pm
Fracking is one of the many tools of the debbil!

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Elena2010
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 12:47pm
It’s all about the money. Follow the money; find the “guilty.”

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drphil69
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 12:42pm
Junk science, like DDT. LIBS CRAVE CONTROL. THEY DON’T CARE WHO HAS TO DIE TO BRING ABOUT CONTROL. SORRY FARMERS, THERE IS A TINY LITTLE FISH THAT WE MUST SAVE, SO YOUR CROPS MUST DIE… ALONG WITH YOUR LIVELYHOOD AND THE VALUE OF YOUR PROPERTY… SORRY WORLD, NO DDT FOR YOU… WE ELIMINATED MALARIA HERE WITH DDT, BUT 100 MILLION OF YOU MUST DIE OF MALARIA BECAUSE WE CRAVE CONTROL, SO WE MADE UP “SCIENCE” SHOWING HOW DDT WOULD DESTROY THE PLANET… NOW WE NEED TO CONTROL ALL ENERGY SOURCES, SO WE MADE UP GLOBAL WARMING… NEVER MIND THAT OUR MODELS HAVE FAILED, NEVER MIND THAT NASA SAYS WE HIGHLY UNDERSTIMATE THE LOSS OF HEAT FROM THE EARTH (NASA MEASURED IT), NEVER MIND THAT THE MEDEIVAL WARMING PERIOD WAS WARMER THAN IT IS NOW, AND ALSO THE ROMA PERIOD, AND NEVER MIND THAT CERN SAYS WE UNDERESTIMATE THE EFFECT OF THE SUN, AND NEVER MIND THAT PREVIOUS INTERGALCIAL WARMING PERIODS SHOWED THE SAME TEMPERATURE TRENDS WE SEE NOW… THE “SCIENCE” IS SETTLED…

NOW, OBEY!!!

I WILL NOT COMPLY.

I AM JOHN GALT.

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woodyl1011fl
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 12:32pm
Eco-tyranny brought about by environmentalists is a clear and present danger to life, liberty, freedom and an economy that will provide prosperity for people and growing families. The environmentalists are the demagogue wackos of the irrational liberal left of our day. Worshipers of mother earth.are they. Notice what universities and organizations are part of their lunacy and of course their party the democrat Marxist party and it’s Fascist Marxist president. Vote them out in November. They wouldn’t even be satisfied if they got their utopia which is circa 1880 then they would claim the animals are causing climate change, oh , I think they are already doing that, why does anyone take these people with anything but a grain of salt.

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