Living near hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — sites may increase the risk of some birth defects by as much as 30 percent, a new study suggests. In the U.S., more than 15 million people now live within a mile of a well.Note that our fine president just mentioned fracking with pride during his State of the Union speech. Oh, he didn't actually use the word "fracking", of course. He was too scared to do that because people know that fracking is a dreadful practice. Instead, he avoided the word and simply said that our exporting of oil was up significantly. He also didn't mention anything about sick babies.
“What we found was that the risk of congenital heart defects (CHD) increased with greater density of gas wells — with mothers living in the highest-density areas at greatest risk,” Lisa McKenzie, a research associate at the Colorado School of Public Health and the lead author of the study, told Al Jazeera.So, uh, maybe we shouldn't be destroying our ground water and ruining the lives of unborn children. But whatever. Industry wants it, so people's concerns are disallowed. They're only people, after all. Who cares what happens to them? Not our government. That's clear.
The study examined links between the mother’s residential proximity to natural gas wells and birth defects in a study of more than 124,842 births from 1996 to 2009 in rural Colorado.
The study found that “births to mothers in the most exposed (areas with over 125 wells per mile) had a 30 percent greater prevalence of CHDs than births to mothers with no wells in a 10-mile radius of their residence.”
The article also includes this statement:
“This study suggests that if you want to have a healthy baby and you live near a fracking site, move,” Gary Wockner of Colorado’s Clean Water Action, said.You heard the man. Move away from fracking sites if you plan to have a child. That's as clear a directive as you can get. This needs to be drummed through the heads of Americans. Oh, I forgot. The American media aren't covering this story.
Never mind.
