Pitt study shows link between fracking, increased lymphoma, asthma reactions
Karen Mansfield
Photos: Karen Mansfield
Christine Barton, left, and Janice Blanock, right, address representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health during a meeting where researchers shared results of a three-year study investigating a link between fracking and health issues. Blanock’s son, Luke, died of Ewing sarcoma in 2016.
Karen Mansfield
Karen Mansfield
James Fabisiak, right, associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, shared results from a three-year environmental study Pitt conducted.
Dr. Ned Ketyer, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, addresses representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health during a public meeting at PennWest California on Tuesday. (Photo by Karen Mansfield)
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Results of studies from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health found children who lived close to natural gas wells had a higher risk of developing lymphoma.
Additionally, people with asthma living close to wells had an increased chance of severe reactions.
Researchers found no association between oil and gas activity and other childhood cancers, including Ewing’s sarcoma.
The results of the three-year study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Department of Health were released Tuesday at a meeting held by Pennsylvania Department of Health officials and Pitt researchers on the campus of PennWest California, where about 100 people attended.
The studies examined the relationship between fracking and childhood cancers, asthma, and birth outcomes.
The DOH contracted with Pitt to conduct the studies after families of pediatric cancer patients pressured then-governor Tom Wolf to investigate the cause of those cancers and illnesses.
Dozens of children and young adults have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and other forms of cancer in heavily drilled Southwestern Pennsylvania since 2008.
Pitt’s cancer study found that children living within one mile of a fracking well were five to seven times more likely to develop lymphoma, a relatively rare cancer.
The cancer study used records from 498 children through age 19 from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry who were diagnosed between 2010 and 2019 from eight counties: Washington, Westmoreland, Fayette, Greene, Beaver and Butler counties. The city of Pittsburgh, which has a ban on fracking, was not included.
It looked at four types of cancer in children: leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, and bone cancers, including Ewing sarcoma.
“We found that children living close to active wells or near many wells had a higher risk for developing a cancer called lymphoma,” said James Fabisiak, associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health. “We did not find any increased risk for other childhood cancers, including the Ewings family of tumors, regarding unconventional natural gas drilling.”
Several families and representatives of health and environmental groups who attended the meeting, however, questioned the manner in which the studies were conducted, and the methodology used.
Additionally, they said the study did little to help find an explanation for the number of rare cancers affecting children in the region.
Christine Barton of North Strabane Township, whose son, Mitch, now 26, was one of at least six people in the Canon-McMillan School District diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, asked for additional studies.
“My son Mitch is a Ewing sarcoma survivor, thank God, but so many have not survived this, and I’m going to tell you, there are kids right now that are sick in Washington, two with Ewing sarcoma, another one with another type of neuroblastoma that was so, so rare. There has to be something going on here,” said Barton. “We just need your help, and maybe further studies. I’d love to see our soil and our water tested. I really feel as though as a community we deserve better and we deserve more answers.”
Fabisiak acknowledged the study had limitations, including the fact that its purpose was to examine associations with disease, not the cause.
The asthma study found a strong link between the production phase of fracking and severe exacerbations, emergency department visits and hospitalizations for asthma in people living within 10 miles of a gas well.
Researchers concluded people with asthma have a four or five times greater chance of having an asthma attack if they live near gas wells during the production phase.
The asthma study included children and adults between the ages of 5 and 90, and included records of 46,676 asthma patients from UPMC’s health system.
Dr. Ned Ketyer, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, called the asthma findings “a bombshell.”
“Asthma is not a mild disease. Asthma is a very serious disease. It’s serious in young children, older children, adults. Very few people outgrow their asthma.”
The study also addressed birth outcomes. Using records on 185,849 births between 2010 and 2019, researchers learned babies born to mothers who lived near active gas wells during the production phase, or compressor stations, or facilities accepting oil and gas waste were about one ounce smaller at birth, “something that, in most cases, poses little health risk,” researchers wrote.
During an emotional question-and-answer segment of the public meeting, one community member urged Pitt researchers, along with Sharon Watkins, the chief epidemiologist for the DOH, and DOH executive deputy secretary Kristen Rodack to visit homes near fracking sites. All but one accepted the invitation.
“Families here want to know if their kids can play in the water in the creek in the backyard, they want to know if they can grow a garden and eat that food, they want to know should they sell their home, should they move, do they have to? Are they putting themselves in danger? This is what they were asking you in 2019. They weren’t saying, ‘Hey go get some data from 20 years ago and tell us what’s up with that,'” said Tammy Murphy, advocacy director for Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania.
In a response to the study, the American Petroleum Institute of Pennsylvania issued a statement, saying, “We acknowledge and appreciate the effort undertaken by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the research team to examine these profoundly complicated, heartbreaking health issues, and we are in the process of reviewing and evaluating the report. Like all studies, the findings need to be evaluated in the context of the study’s strengths and limitations. As an industry, we rely on data and science that we put into practice every day, striving to follow strict industry-led standards and a robust federal and state regulatory system, to safely produce and deliver abundant, affordable energy in cleaner ways. Protecting public health and the environment in which we operate is our highest priority.”
Alison Steele, executive director of the Environmental Health Project, said dozens of epidemiological studies show a correlation between shale gas development and health impacts for residents living nearby.
Watkins said future studies are planned, and the DOH aims to offer more educational opportunities – including an initiative in the fall to better prepare health care providers to identify and treat people who live near and work at gas sites.