Claims of health impacts from shale development have become a heated topic in the Appalachian Basin, with activists pushing a misleading narrative in the region. But the allegation that fracking is causing widespread public health issues is far from reality in the Buckeye State, according two state agencies.
In response to a handful of activists soliciting information on households living near shale development in an attempt to create an agenda-driven health registry, the Ohio Department of Health said it does respond to each complaint received about the shale industry. As Rebecca Fugitt, assistant chief of the department’s Bureau of Environmental Health and Radiation Protection told StateImpact though, regulators simply aren’t getting many complaints:
“No, we only get, maybe… it’s less than five a year…to be honest, it really is. We don’t get very many.” (emphasis added)
Similarly, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources received only 10 health complaints over 11 years from citizens living near oil and gas operations.
Read more at EIDhealth.org.
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