The presence of a radioactive, cancer-causing element has increased in parts of Pennsylvania where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been on the rise in recent years, according to a new study.
Researchers with Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said this week they’ve
discovered a correlation between radon levels and fracking across
the Keystone State. The team failed to directly blame the
controversial natural gas extraction process on the increase in
radon, an odorless, radioactive gas, but said the surge began
around a decade ago when fracking sites starting springing up
exponentially.
The group obtained statistics covering 2 million different radon
tests done between 1987 and 2013 from 800,000 buildings across
Pennsylvania, then evaluated the concentration levels of the
element in relation to factors including weather, geology and the
development of “unconventional” drilling wells, including those
used for fracking.
“Between 2005-2013, 7,469 unconventional wells were drilled
in Pennsylvania,” the study
found. “Basement radon concentrations fluctuated between
1987-2003, but began an upward trend from 2004-2012 in all county
categories.”
Concentration levels were higher in homes located near those
wells, according to the report, and 300,000 test locations
returned results that exceeded a standard set in place by the
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“We’re not convinced this industry is playing a role [in
increased radon levels],” study leader Brian S. Schwartz,
MD, an environmental health professor at the Bloomberg School,
told ThinkProgress. “All we’re saying is these
findings provide no reassurance that the industry is not playing
a role.
Scientists link Pennsylvania’s fracking boom to increased
radioactive gas in homes http://t.co/2EgjFBCjUj pic.twitter.com/F1Brb6NMt0
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) April
9, 2015
Pennsylvania buildings that rely on well water had a 21 percent
higher concentration of radon than those using municipal water,
according to the new report, and test sites in townships —where
most fracking occurs — had a 39 percent higher concentration of
radon than buildings located in cities.
“By drilling 7,000 holes in the ground, the fracking industry
may have changed the geology and created new pathways for radon
to rise to the surface,” added Joan Casey, a colleague also
involved in the report, who emphasized that “there are a lot
of potential ways that fracking may be distributing and spreading
radon.”
“One plausible explanation for elevated radon levels in
people’s homes is the development of thousands of unconventional
natural gas wells in Pennsylvania over the past 10 years,”
Schwartz explained to Phys.org this week. “These findings worry
us.”
FACT: New study “does not necessarily indicate a link between
#fracking
and radon.” http://t.co/jhN26XOKMl pic.twitter.com/8lvUXQ2jh0
— Marcellus Shale (@MarcellusGas) April
9, 2015
Indeed, the recent findings lend extra credence to the concerns
raised already by environmentalists who have raised questions
about the rise of fracking and the possible long-term
repercussions. The process involves injecting gallons of solution
into the earth in order to extract natural gas from rock, but is
still relatively new and not federally regulated. Instead, local
authorities decide the rules for fracking sites, and voters in
California, Ohio and Texas voted last year to ban the technique
within state limits.
“This ought to be treated as if it’s something, like
nanotechnology, which is a new thing that needs to be done
carefully,” Dr. Bernard Goldstein, former dean of the
University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health and a former
EPA official, told NBC News.