"People with asthma face a larger risk of asthma attacks if they live near heavy gas drilling activity in Pennsylvania, compared to those who don’t, according to research by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Internal Medicine. The report “Association Between Unconventional Natural Gas Development in the Marcellus Shale and Asthma Exacerbations,” is the first to make use of extensive electronic health records from the Geisinger Health System, along with state well production data, to examine the impact on asthma.

“Ours is the first to look at asthma but we now have several studies suggesting adverse health outcomes related to the drilling of unconventional natural gas wells,” said Sara G. Rasmussen, the study’s lead researcher and a PhD candidate in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences. “Going forward, we need to focus on the exact reasons why these things are happening, because if we know why, we can help make the industry safer.”

Rasmussen and her colleagues looked at the health records of more than 35,000 Geisinger patients between the ages of 5 and 90 who had asthma. Geisinger has been keeping detailed electronic health records since the early 2000′s, which made for a large data set. The researchers looked at patients health records between 2005 and 2012. The healthcare system encompasses 40 counties in central and northeast Pennsylvania.

...Looking at four stages of shale gas well activity, which included preparing the well site, drilling, fracking, and production, Rasmussen says they found that people with asthma who live near more intense shale gas activity are 1.5 to 4.4 times more likely to suffer from an asthma attack.

...The study did not look at causation, but Rasmussen says its likely either increased air pollution and/or stress from new industrial activity."

source

https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2016/07/18/health-study-sh...

original study

Association Between Unconventional Natural Gas Development in the Marcellus Shale and Asthma Exacerbations, by Sara G. Rasmussen; Elizabeth L. Ogburn; Meredith McCormack; Joan A. Casey; Karen Bandeen-Roche; Dione G. Mercer; and Brian S. Schwartz; JAMA Internal Medicine.

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2534153

related

Cardiovascular hospital admissions higher in fracking areas,

http://gomarcellusshale.com/forum/topics/cardiovascular-hospital-ad...