Boulder, Colo., USA - Fracking is in the headlines a lot these days, and everyone has an opinion about it. But how much do we really know for certain about the oil and gas extraction technique and its health effects? And how do we find out the truth among all the shouted opinions? To help cut through the static, several scientists have put together a multidisciplinary session on fracking and health at the meeting of The Geological Society of America (GSA) in Denver on Sunday.
"There is so much perceived information on fracking in the media, with so little of it based on real science and actual data," says Thomas Darrah, a medical geologist at Ohio State University and one of the conveners of the GSA Pardee Keynote Session, "Energy and Health: The Emergence of Medical Geology in Response to the Shale Gas Boom."
"Fracking has moved so quickly, and the research community is playing catch up on water, air, and health issues," said Robert Jackson, an environmental scientist at Duke University who will present his research this Sunday. "The goal is to present a state of the science for researchers and the public."
The afternoon keynote session is designed to cover a lot of ground. It will start with the geologists, hydrologists, and air-quality experts who are studying the chemistry and the physical properties of fracking in the ground, water, and air. Then the session veers into territory not often covered at a geological meeting, with talks by toxicologists, researchers in occupational medicine, and epidemiologists.
"This session includes people who would normally not be anywhere near a GSA conference," said Darrah. "The idea is that we end the session by having the geoscience community interact with a group of people who are looking at health data sets: epidemiologists. That way we can put people working on the other end of the equation in the same room." Included in the eleven scheduled presentations, and at the medical end of the equation, is a talk titled "Public Health Implications of Hydraulic Fracturing," by David O. Carpenter of the University of Albany's School of Public Health, and another, "Energy and Health: The Emergence of Medical Geology in Response to the Shale Gas Boom: An Occupational and Environmental Medicine Perspective," to be delivered by Theodore F. Them of Guthrie Clinic Ltd.
For his part, Darrah will be presenting a talk about his work, "Understanding In-House Exposures to Natural Gas and Metal-Rich Aerosols from Groundwater within an Unconventional Energy Basin."
There are two additional presentations on the air-quality issues of fracking, which is perhaps the topic the public knows the least about. Gabrielle Petron of the University of Colorado and NOAA will be talking about outdoor air emissions from hydraulic fracturing activities, and public health researcher Lisa M. Mackenzie of the University of Colorado will talk about work evaluating specific health risks from exposure to natural gas drilling in Garfield County, Colorado.
WHAT:
Session No. 64
P6. ENERGY AND HEALTH: THE EMERGENCE OF MEDICAL GEOLOGY IN RESPONSE TO THE SHALE GAS BOOM
GSA Geology and Health Division
URL: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session33316.html
WHEN:
Sunday, 27 Oct., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Colorado Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 4CD
CONTACT:
Thomas Darrah, Ohio State University
614-688-2132, 570-205-7533
darrah.24@osu.edu
NOTE: Several other aspects of hydraulic fracturing are also being discussed at the GSA Annual Meeting, including:
Session No. 22:
Geochemistry of Flowback and Produced Waters From Hydraulically Fractured Black Shale
Sunday, 27 Oct., 8 a.m. to noon
Colorado Convention Center Room 503
https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session33299.html
Session 299:
A Comprehensive Look at Hydraulic Fracturing For Hydrocarbon Recovery and Other Purposes
Tuesday, 29 Oct., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Colorado Convention Center Room 501
https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session32577.html
Search the complete program by author or keyword at https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/start.html.
ON-SITE NEWSROOM
Contact: Kea Giles
Colorado Convention Center, Room 608
+1-303-228-8431
The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with more than 25,000 members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, USA, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth science education.