Is it April Fool’s Day? Wait, no, it’s January 4th, not April 1st. But honestly, we thought it must be a joke to read that scientists doing “research” claim that living close to a fracking site will make you sick. Not from air pollution. Not from water pollution. But from noise pollution. Yep, loud noises nearby cause things like “stress” and “annoyance” and even diabetes (!) according to Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSEHE) and Michael McCawley, the interim chair of the Occupational and Environmental Health Department at West Virginia University. The study, titled “Public health implications of environmental noise associated with unconventional oil and gas development,” goes for the jugular–making a case for stricter regulations and larger setbacks (i.e. less drilling). Yet, the researchers don’t do any of their own in-the-field research! They rely on out-of-date research done by others. And they show no causal link between health impacts and shale drilling in the “study”…
Is it April Fool’s Day? Wait, no, it’s January 4th, not April 1st. But honestly, we thought it must be a joke to read that scientists doing “research” claim that living close to a fracking site will make you sick. Not from air pollution. Not from water pollution. But from noise pollution. Yep, loud noises nearby cause things like “stress” and “annoyance” and even diabetes (!) according to Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSEHE) and Michael McCawley, the interim chair of the Occupational and Environmental Health Department at West Virginia University. The study, titled “Public health implications of environmental noise associated with unconventional oil and gas development,” goes for the jugular–making a case for stricter regulations and larger setbacks (i.e. less drilling). Yet, the researchers don’t do any of their own in-the-field research! They rely on out-of-date research done by others. And they show no causal link between health impacts and shale drilling in the “study”…