Cardiovascular hospital admissions higher in fracking areas

"Research released Wednesday from the University of Pennsylvania found that as more wells were drilled in Northeastern Pennsylvania, hospital admission rates for cardiovascular events rose in the same areas.

The Penn study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, analyzed hospital discharge data for 93,000 inpatients, by zip code, between 2007 and 2011 in three counties in Pennsylvania's northeastern corner. Bradford and Susquehanna each had large increases over that time in wells that use [fracking]. Neighboring Wayne County had no gas development.

While hospital admission rates decreased slightly or remained constant overall, as they have nationwide, hospitalizations for cardiology were about 27 percent higher over five years among residents who lived in zip codes with more wells and more wells per square kilometer than among those whose zip codes had the least.

Neurology admissions also increased significantly for zips with more wells.

...

The studies only show links, not cause and effect."

source:

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/20150116_Pa__studies_link_frack...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on July 17, 2015 at 1:14am

Thats because lunatics like you keep scaring the hell out of people. Do you sleep well at night knowing how badly you frighten people?

Permalink Reply by Barry D on July 17, 2015 at 1:53pm

Jim,

No doubt that the writings here on GMS and letters to the editor, by people such as Paul,cause more heart issues than actual oil and gas development.

Permalink Reply by Gas Boy on July 17, 2015 at 1:32am

From the map, one can also conclude that in cities such as Erie, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, York, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Philadelphia - there are NO cardiovascular problems. 

Therefore, the reason must be democratic, liberal policies that keep people sitting on their butts instead of exerting themselves, working a job, and being productive citizens.

Additionally, this is a great map that shows where the economic activity, jobs and wealth creation, lie in the Commonwelfare of Pennsytucky.

Permalink Reply by Sherre Boyanowski on July 17, 2015 at 1:54am

Bradford County only has 2 hospitals, and one of them is on the New York state line and has a large influx of patients from that state.  Susquehanna County only has 1 hospital. A lot will go to neighboring New York state larger hospitals.  Wyoming County only has 1 hospital. It is a band-aid hospital and cardiac patients get sent to larger hospitals in Scranton and Wilkes Barre. Not exactly sure how this zip code study was done and were all hospitals in the areas surveyed?    

"The studies only show links, not cause and effect." There can be a lot of other factors in this study that we don't know about. Age, life style, stress, genetics to name a few. I don't think they are comparing apples to apples. 

 

Permalink Reply by Bill on July 17, 2015 at 2:30am

AND... maybe it's because they finally had enough money to afford health care since the gas industry moved in?

Just my.02

Permalink Reply by Ben on July 17, 2015 at 2:37am

When your pockets are full of cash, you can afford to eat like a king. Ribeye's and fancy wines lead to cardiovascular issues. It's one of the burdens mineral rights owners in these areas have to live with!

Permalink Reply by jb379 on July 17, 2015 at 3:53am

Wow Paul that is really eye opening. I am going to make some serious life changes.  Thanks for the info buddy! 

Permalink Reply by sircedric on July 17, 2015 at 4:52am

Gas well workers and familys and all the other industry that comes along with it. Its a population explosion. There is more of everything. More traffic/accidents, Business is booming, Resturants,Hardware,Shoping,ect,ect. Larger population,more doctor/ hospital visits.  Wow, who would of thought!

Permalink Reply by Barry D on July 17, 2015 at 1:58pm

Matthew,

If you read the material associated with this and other studies that Paul posts, it shows exactly that. These are rural areas and the population suffers from all manner of ill health for numerous reasons.

Paul posts this nonsense hoping that the uniformed.

That's why we must reply when he posts.

Permalink Reply by Mowing the pipeline on July 17, 2015 at 4:51am
In addition to Ben's observation of the obvious change in lifestyle comes the ability to get medical diagnoses and care. Talk about pulling at straws!
Permalink Reply by Paul Heckbert on July 17, 2015 at 7:15am

I found some answers by reading the original article "Unconventional Gas and Oil Drilling Is Associated with Increased Hospital Utilization Rates"

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.01...

Q: What about patients in northern PA counties who went to a hospital in NY state?

A: Apparently they were not included in the study. Related: Patients were assigned to a zip code according to their home address. “Transient [gas] workers whose address was not local were excluded. Thus, our data potentially may underestimate hospital use that excluded those who were not Pennsylvania residents.”

Q: Isn’t this explained by the population boom that resulted from fracking?

A: Wrong. I think we can assume that these researchers (in the University of Pennsylvania Department of Biostatistics the School of Medicine) have the basic statistical skills to factor out population effects, and they did. If you read their paper, we verify this. The statistic they used was not the NUMBER of hospital patients but the RATE, e.g. number of cardiology inpatients divided by total population, within a zip code.

We need more studies like this. Hopefully the severance tax money will be used to create a health registry that would support future studies. We've been foolish to allow this new industrial activity to take over some of our counties without checking the health effects more carefully. Just as with the tobacco industry, it's essential to have strong regulatory controls on the gas industry, lest they sicken us.

Permalink Reply by catt on July 21, 2015 at 4:11pm

I agree that health studies need to be done in these areas....but I also think that a lot of drug use is causing this increase in cardiovascular events. Drugs are every where......they have an impact on these studies.

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