Scientists skeptical of oil and gas company’s claim that its fracking ‘poses no public health risks’

Scientists who study public health say they’re skeptical of a company’s claims that its fracking “Poses No Public Health Risks.”

Canonsburg, Pa.-based CNX said that a research project it is conducting as part of a voluntary collaboration with the state of Pennsylvania has found no health risks near its operations.

The project was launched after a state-funded University of Pittsburgh study found fracking was linked to childhood lymphomas, asthma exacerbations and lower than average birth weights.

CNX said health concerns related to fracking are the result of “(u)nfounded accusations and innuendo” that “drive current popular narratives” about the process of fracking.

“(A)gendas of those ideologically or financially opposed” to fracking have led them to use “ambiguous and suspect statistics to goal-seek to their desired conclusions,” the company said, on the project web site.

The company said its monitoring showed air pollution levels near its sites were below federal health thresholds for particulate matter and volatile chemicals associated with oil and gas, like benzene, a carcinogen.

“There is no indication that air emissions from natural gas operations have an impact on human health,” concluded a post authored by company chief risk officer Hayley Scott.

The site published air monitoring data collected at over a dozen of the company’s sites–including gas wells and compressor stations in southwest Pennsylvania.

“We are publishing raw, site level data…not relying on statistical associations and assumptions,” company spokesman Brian Aiello said in an email. “(W)e clearly view raw, site level data as the far superior method versus previous studies.”

Public health researchers weigh in

But public health researchers that reviewed the company’s reporting expressed doubts about the company’s project. Among their concerns was that the company’s data had not gone through peer-review, a basic quality assurance mechanism for scientific research.

“I would not say that this follows well-established scientific practices because for that you’d want their findings to go through something akin to peer review,” said Jennifer Baka, Associate Professor of Geography at Penn State University.

“I am very skeptical when studies have absolute claims like ‘Safe and Poses No Public Health Risks,{sic}’” said Lisa McKenzie, associate professor of environmental and occupational health at Colorado University’s School of Public Health, in an email. “This is because it is not scientifically possible to prove that there are no health risks; everything has some level of risk.”

Researchers also said the company did not account for a growing body of research pointing to associations between fracking and public health risks, like increased asthma exacerbations, heart problems, premature death, and childhood cancers.

They also expressed concerns over how the company chose the sites it’s monitoring. Over 14,000 shale gas wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania over the past 20 years.

“I wouldn’t characterize this as a public health study. I would characterize this as a data collection effort,” said Jonathan Buonocore, assistant professor of environmental health at Boston University’s School of Public Health.

“If you wanted to do the study, we would see (more) details,” like methods for determining wind direction and wind speed, and other methodological details, Buonocore said. “There would probably be other things that, if there was a genuine scientific effort, they would do. Whereas this, they just dropped some monitors and put it on a website and called it a day.”

The scientists said that while it’s good to have the data CNX is producing from this limited number of sites, there are several things it needs to do to use the data to determine the relative safety of oil and gas drilling.

“Any efforts to increase the transparency, such as this one, are highly welcomed,” wrote Longxiang Li, assistant professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, in an email. “But (with the CNX study) we got more questions/concerns than answers. If CNX can organize their ‘study’ into a peer-reviewed paper, we can better understand what they did and how they interpreted their results. Without these essential details, we cannot give specific comments about its methodology.”

Reporting partnership between CNX and Gov. Shapiro

The project was launched in November, 2023, when CNX and Governor Josh Shapiro agreed to a partnership where the company would allow the state to study two of its well sites. The company also agreed to release air and water quality data around its own well sites publicly, and agreed to voluntarily increase setbacks for its gas wells from buildings and schools. Further, it would provide more information about which chemicals it injects underground during the fracking process, which breaks up tight rock formations thousands of feet underground to send methane gas to the surface.

This agreement was made public a few months after the release of the University of Pittsburgh public health study funded by the state Department of Health. The “Pitt Study” was the result of a campaign by families who had lost children to rare childhood cancers and lived in southwest Pennsylvania near fracking operations.

CNX’s website criticized the Pitt study, saying it suffered “fatal flaws,” and that it “ignored key influential factors” that might have led to observed health impacts. The company faulted the researchers because it said they “never visited shale gas sites, refused opportunities to do so, didn’t take air or water samples, or generate any new, original data or measurements.” The company concluded that in the Pitt study, “(s)tatistical speculation trumped actual measurement” and that it found “very weak associations” between natural gas development and health outcomes of asthma and childhood lymphoma.

Pitt researchers did not return requests for comment made to the university’s graduate school of public health.

Local reaction to the CNX data

Heaven Sensky, of the Center for Coalfield Justice called on Gov. Shapiro to do more to protect families living near fracking sites.

“It is critical that the Pennsylvania Department of Health, under the direction of Governor Shapiro, take meaningful action to stop the harm and listen to community members as they plead for real support and action to merely protect their families and their children’s playsets with a reasonable setback,” she said.

Lauren Camarda, a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Protection called the collaboration between the state and CNX “an important step forward in improving transparency within the natural gas industry.”

But she cautioned that the data from CNX’s monitoring “is only indicative of one small sample over a short period of time and does not reflect the department’s findings. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is preparing to conduct its own long-term independent study at two future CNX well sites as part of the collaboration.”

Camarda said DEP is also requiring companies to disclose fracking chemicals before they start drilling a well, not after.

A familiar narrative

Baka, the Penn State scientist, compared the CNX project to other industry-led efforts to cast doubt on the public health effects of smoking and the link between climate change and fossil fuel pollution, as outlined in the 2010 book “Merchants of Doubt.”

“That’s what this seems to me, that it’s a ‘Merchants of Doubt’-style analysis,” Baka said. “We have some data coming out of a reputable academic institution that followed well-established scientific procedures for looking at this relationship (between fracking and health effects.) And this is an industry-funded study that is trying to peddle doubts.”

The company said the results indicate that if people who live near fracking get sick, “then we must look elsewhere to understand the causation and remedy.” It also said that its air monitoring results mean more regulations for the industry aren’t necessary.

“Pennsylvania policy should follow the measured data, which indicates that there is no need for additional setbacks or other restrictions,” according to the company’s website.

Read more from our partners, The Allegheny Front.