Pennsylvanians Against Fracking Responds to New Yale Study Linking Fracking to Cancer-Causing Chemicals

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Contact: Danielle Filson, [email protected], 646-335-0443

  Karen Feridun, Pennsylvanians Against Fracking, 610-678-7726

Pennsylvanians Against Fracking Responds to New Yale Study Linking Fracking to Cancer-Causing Chemicals

Call on Governor Wolf to Implement a Statewide Moratorium on Fracking

Pennsylvania – The following is a statement from Pennsylvanians Against Fracking in response to a new analysis by Yale School of Public Health researchers establishing a link between cancer-causing chemicals and fracking, including some that are known to cause childhood leukemia and lymphoma. The Yale team calls for additional research, specifically a list of 55 carcinogens that must be studied.

Yale researchers just gave Governor Wolf the perfect justification for a statewide moratorium on fracking, not that he’s looking for one. He has steadfastly ignored the mountain of peer reviewed studies that make a solid case for a halt to further drilling.

The paper comes just one day before a group that has dubbed itself the Moms of Fort Cherry School District in western PA plans to rally to stop a well from being constructed just over a half mile from the schools their children attend. A recent report from Environment America says that more than 8,500 Pennsylvania school children, grades K-12, attend classes within a half mile of drilling activities. The number grows to nearly 58,000 within a mile and to nearly 132,000 within two miles of drilling. The Moms of Fort Cherry School District is not the first group of concerned parents to organize to try to protect their children from fracking. Unfortunately, it’s not likely to be the last.

When Governor Wolf was elected, 425 peer-reviewed studies had been done on fracking. By the time he’d been in office six months, the number had jumped to 550. As of the most recent count in April by Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers for Healthy Energy, the number had topped 685.

Since then, studies have linked asthma attacks, migraines, fatigue, and chronic nasal and sinus problems to fracking, every one of them conducted in Pennsylvania. Governor Wolf has ignored them all. But the clear next steps laid out in the Yale study demand his attention.

Governor Wolf must impose a statewide moratorium on fracking and direct state health officials to conduct the studies required to fully understand the risks posed by the carcinogenic chemicals listed by the researchers. If he does any less, he must be prepared to quantify for the public exactly how many children he is willing to sacrifice to cancer  in order to enable the natural gas industry.

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About Pennsylvanians Against Fracking

Pennsylvanians Against Fracking is a statewide coalition of organizations, institutions, and businesses calling for a halt to fracking in the Commonwealth. Steering Committee member organizations include Berks Gas Truth, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Food & Water Watch, Marcellus Outreach Butler, Marcellus Protest, Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air, and Thomas Merton Center. Learn more about Pennsylvanians Against Fracking at paagainstfracking.org.

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59 Comments on "Pennsylvanians Against Fracking Responds to New Yale Study Linking Fracking to Cancer-Causing Chemicals"

  • thanks, Karen, for publicizing this information and for sending it to the Surgeon General, Ms. Levine of our State…
    the Governor and his Cabinet have been sent plenty of information on the Harms of Fracking with Peer-review studies and have taken no action to stop this harmful practice.
    They will have to answer for their neglect of the Public, probably in public trials of the future…

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