A report by three public health professionals urges Denton city leaders to consider the health effects of natural gas drilling as they rewrite the city's drilling and production ordinance.
Studies have offered a "mixed picture" of how gas exploration is affecting air quality in the Barnett Shale region, but there's enough evidence to justify a cautious approach, according to the report by Jessica Gullion, Naomi Meier and Rhonda Love.
"Evidence suggests there is no threshold below which air pollution does not have a negative impact on health," the authors wrote. "Not all of the pollutants in the air can be traced back to the oil and gas industry, but they contribute to the levels experienced in the North Texas area."
The report surveys selected literature and air quality studies in the area, including state and independent air monitoring in Dish and Flower Mound.
It also rounds up studies and news reports of water and air pollution in other areas of the U.S. with extensive gas drilling, including Colorado and Pennsylvania.
The report, sent last month to the Denton City Council and its official gas drilling task force, is already helping shape debate.
Task force member Vicki Oppenheim cited the report during a meeting on Jan. 9 as a reason to consider tougher regulations.
Love, a retired public health professor, said the authors wanted to elevate public health issues on the city's agenda during the ordinance review. She authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and conference presentations in a 34-year career mostly spent at the University of Toronto.
Gullion is a medical sociologist at Texas Woman's University and a former chief epidemiologist for the Denton County Health Department who has published more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals on health issues.
Meier is a doctoral candidate at the University of North Texas Health Science Center's School of Public Health.
Love said she is particularly concerned about a Cook Children's Communitywide Children's Health Assessment and Planning Survey that found higher rates of childhood asthma in Denton County than the statewide average.
Emissions from natural gas operations such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, ozone and particulate matter are associated with respiratory disease, childhood asthma and other disorders, according to the report.
"We ought to be looking at those connections," Love said.
An official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Jan. 4 that more study was needed to determine the possible impacts of shale gas drilling on public health and the environment, according to The Associated Press.
The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a major study of how hydraulic fracturing affects drinking water sources, with preliminary findings expected late this year. The practice, commonly known as fracking, involves pumping millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground to break up rock and free gas.
LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.
