On a recentCanadian report on health related to fracking:

Little info on fracking's long-term health impact: N.S. public health expert
SELENA ROSS, June 16, 2014 -

One of Nova Scotia's top public health experts says there's a dearth of information about how fracking affects human health, especially far into the future.

However, after reviewing what evidence there is, Dr. Frank Atherton believes the known hazards can be minimized with careful planning.

"I think there are risks to health — there are some real risks to health and some theoretical risks to health," he said in an interview. "But they are manageable, as they are manageable for any other industry in the short term.

"I am worried about the long term, and there are sometimes very long-term consequences which are just not known yet."

Atherton, who also teaches at Dalhousie, is the province's deputy chief medical officer of heealth but is serving independently on the review panel looking into the controversial method of oil and gas extraction. His report was not written on the province's behalf.

The paper, released Monday night, draws on 37 reports and studies, including ones by the chief medical officer of New Brunswick, Public Health England and the European Parliament.

For people living close to fracking wells, health risks include respiratory problems, exposure to toxins and even the stress and raised blood pressure that people could suffer from weeks of noisy drilling.

Atherton included specific recommendations in his report, one of which is to require wells to be a certain distance from people's homes. About half of Nova Scotians live in rural areas, a higher proportion than many places, he said.

Many of Atherton's recommendations would increase the province's knowledge of the industry.

One suggestion was to require fracking companies to release information about the chemicals used in their fracking fluids. A Health Canada report compiled 750 chemical components used in the industry from 2005 to 2009, some of which can be found in common household products.

However, companies have sometimes insisted on keeping chemical ingredient lists private for proprietary reasons.

A third recommendation was simply to increase monitoring of health and environmental effects, if Nova Scotia does open the door to fracking, in order to create better data.

"There are places, of course, where hydraulic fracturing is taking place without those mitigation measures in place, like in the States," Atherton said. "Now, can you document actual harm to individuals? Well, you can't really, because you can only go by anecdotes.

"Even if those mitigations were not in place (elsewhere), you can't put your hand on your heart and say there will definitely be harm to people. But what you can say is that if those mitigations are in place, then the risk of harm is reduced, and that's what the public health approach is trying to do."

Atherton said that certain groups, including children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with respiratory illnesses, could be particularly vulnerable to various health risks.

The respiratory danger comes from increased ozone levels that may accompany large-scale fracking industries, according to the report.

Toxin exposure could come in many forms, including from groundwater contamination or as a result of spills or accidents, or from local air pollution.

"Although the amounts of contaminants in the air may be within safety standards, these standards are often constructed to allow for single-dose exposures on an adult rather than for chronic, long-term exposure to people who work or live around natural gas installations," Atherton wrote.

He also pointed to a very small increased risk of cancer, a danger that has been modelled rather than proven with case studies.

A bigger risk would be to workers, but that's true for many industries, he said.

There could also be health benefits to fracking in Nova Scotia, especially bringing more money to rural economies, he wrote. Income is closely linked to health, which he defined as being "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

He also compared the fracking industry with other energy industries, such as coal and wind power, which bring their own health considerations.

He said he was surprised to find that it's unclear whether extraction and use of fracked gas, overall, is less polluting than using conventional oil and coal energy.