Bravo to Michael Badges-Canning for his persistent courage to stand up and speak out for the health and safety of residents of Butler County. As a pediatrician, I regard the significant and growing body of scientific evidence that fracking for oil and gas is dangerous to human and animal health as a clear indication that fracking must stop. Fracking is particularly harmful to children, before and after birth.

The peer-reviewed studies that Badges-Canning cited, part of the more than 500 studies now in print, were performed by reputable institutions and include data from Butler County. These studies can be easily found in the Compendium released by Concerned Health Professionals of New York.

If a food or medication was causing as much harm as fracking, it would be pulled from the shelf. How odd it is that as we learn more about the dangers of fracking and its associated infrastructure, some try to defend it through personal attacks.

The Butler Eagle can do a service to the people of Butler County by listening to its concerned citizens, the growing body of research and health experts and educating its readers about the reasons why fracking needs to end. We can create cleaner energy, safer jobs and a healthier environment by stopping dirty practices like fracking and moving to renewable sources. 

Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Baltimore, MD 

A number of health studies and reports related to fracking have been in the news recently.  In West Virginia, a state health department official has raised concerns about elevated levels of benzene, a carcinogen, in the air near shale-gas fracking sites, stating: “The concerns of the public are validated.”  A study published in the journal Endocrinology has found hormone-disrupting chemicals in surface water and groundwater near Colorado fracking sites.  A study undertaken by professors from Princeton, Columbia University and MIT shows that infants born within a 2.5-kilometer radius of fracking sites had increased chances, by more than half, of various negative health impacts.  And the latest study from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH) states that mothers living in high-density drilling areas have a greater risk of giving birth to children with congenital birth defects.

Combine all this with a warning from a national pediatricians' group that children are more susceptible to damage from the toxic chemicals used in fracking, and are more likely to be exposed to airborne contaminants due to their many hours of outdoor play, and one can clearly see why MOB is committed to “protecting our children” from the toxic pollution generated in our communities by the shale-gas industry.

M.O.B.