May 12, 2018 |
Dr.
David Nolan, a member of the Broomfield community, speaks up about the
lack of attention given to valuable research on the dangers of
residential fracking, and warns about the potential future danger this
ignorance poses.
My
name is Dr. David Nolan, a gastroenterologist working with Colorado
Permanente Physician’s Group (CPMG) and Kaiser Permanente. I completed
medical school at Chicago Medical School and post-graduate training at
the University of California, Irvine in Internal Medicine. After
completing a year as chief resident, I went on to complete a fellowship
in Gastroenterology before moving to Colorado to start a life here. I
have been a resident of Broomfield for the past 4 years, and I love my
neighborhood and the people who live here.
I
became aware of the issues with residential fracking about 2 years ago
after receiving a letter ‘notifying’ me that my mineral rights were
being sold. One of the nurses who works with me who is very involved in
this community introduced me to the works of the CDPHE and COGCC
(acronyms that were completely foreign to me at the time). Since then, I
have become very familiar with the literature associated with fracking,
and more so the risks therein. As such, I have been extremely
disappointed in the physician involvement and leadership of these
organizations and feel that the data has been completely misrepresented
as safe. On reading the summary statement from the COGCC as well as the
articles cited within, I realized quickly that the process of fracking
was not safe, and the very best that could be said was that it did not
have enough data to conclude that it was harmful.
Since
then, there have been several high-impact articles published from
powerhouse academic institutions. All of these articles have been well
written and peer reviewed, and unfortunately all show significant
medical risk. The most confounding of which are those demonstrating an
up to 4 fold increased risk of acute lymphocytic leukemia in people
living within 1000 ft of oil and gas operations. More recently this has
been backed up by a study from the University of Colorado showing an 8
fold increased lifetime risk of cancer in those closest to oil and gas
operations (within 500 ft – the proposed distance set forth by our
COGCC). These are obviously the most concerning articles since they deal
with life-threatening cancers, but there are also very well written and
well powered retrospective studies demonstrating increased risk for low
birth weight infants, asthma exacerbations as well as nose bleeds,
psychiatric and gastrointestinal illnesses.
The
quality of this data is not in question. The value of retrospective
studies is in identifying environmental risk factors to raise concern
and promote further research. In this situation, the mere idea of
conducting randomized trials on unsuspecting people living within range
of these operations would be unethical and completely inappropriate
(imagine knowingly subjecting a pregnant mother to volatile organic
chemicals known to cause cancer). As such, the data is already sound and
without a doubt demonstrates risk. This fact has been ignored by the
COGCC and dismissed by its physician leadership without any
substantial/independent peer reviewed studies to the contrary. For those
familiar with medical research, this practice is barbaric. A
pharmaceutical company proceeding with a drug with the same level of
harmful data would be shut down and taken off the market. Even if
significant benefit was found from such a drug, it would require
significant INFORMED consent – an ideal that the oil and gas industry
has not been held.
My
greatest fear is that the harms of fracking are going to be dismissed
until people start dying. Much like the tobacco industry in the 60s and
70s, this data is being ignored by a giant industry unwilling to put
forth the effort to commit to public safety and continue to put profits
above our health. We need to continue to push to BAN residential
fracking. There is no safe distance within our neighborhoods. Even 2500
ft puts those at harm within the highest risk (less than 1km which is
approximately 3500 ft) of respiratory illness, cancer, birth defects and
ultimately death.
Courtesy of our Broomfield neighbors.
