Ohio Air “Study” Near Frack Sites Retracted for Basic Math Error

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retractedIn May 2015 MDN brought you news of a then-newly released “study” from “scientists” at Oregon State University and the University of Cincinnati that reportedly found people living near fracking sites in Ohio were being exposed to “deadly” air pollution (see Sham Air Study: “Unsafe Exposure” for Those Near OH Frack Sites). The so-called study used the dreaded “c” word–cancer–implying those who live close to fracking operations “may have” an increased chance of getting cancer. The published paper was titled “Impact of Natural Gas Extraction on PAH Levels in Ambient Air” and published in the peer reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology. At the time, left-leaning mainstream media had a hay day, trumpeting the study as yet more proof that fracking is not only evil–it kills ya. We pointed out all of the problems with this so-called scientific research: a very small number of air samples, taken from “non-random” (i.e. cherry-picked) locations, with untrained homeowner “volunteers” collecting the samples and shipping them to Oregon for study. In news that no mainstream outlets are reporting, the authors of the study have retracted it because (a) they used a wrong value for a gas constant, and (b) they screwed up an Excel spreadsheet link/formula. That threw off the entire outcome. In other words, the air near fracking sites is just fine–nothing to see here folks–just move along and ignore our previous 5-alarm study…

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