Living near a shale gas extraction site would increase the risk of have asthma and would make it more difficult to control the disease, according to a discovery by doctors from the University of Pennsylvania (United States) published in the journal Jama of internal medicine.
Scientists found that people who lived near wells where hydraulic fracturing is practiced were more likely to develop mild, moderate or severe asthma compared to those who live far from these sites.
For this study, researchers looked at medical data from patients at a clinic in Pennsylvania where more than 35,000 people were followed for asthma. You should know that in this State, more than 6,200 wells have been dug to extract shale gas (the technique consists of injecting pressurized liquid into the wells to extract natural gas).
Each stage of well development was associated with an increasing risk of suffering from asthma. But the researchers believe that they should also obtain specific measurements of certain air pollutants present around the wells to better understand the risk of asthma. The hydraulic fracturing activity generates a lot of truck traffic, which aggravates air pollution. Stress and lack of sleep could also play a role in the onset or worsening of the disease.
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