ENERGY AND HEALTH: THE EMERGENCE OF MEDICAL GEOLOGY IN RESPONSE TO THE SHALE GAS BOOM: AN OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE (OEM) PERSPECTIVE

As shale-play discovery, exploration, drilling, and production expand across North America, both proponents for, and opponents of, related hydrofracturing processing using high-volume hydrofracturing fluids (HVHFs) line up. Relative positions are often based on unfounded, unsubstantiated media “hype” and anecdotal evidence, absent both hard science and formal human-health studies. In response, both emotional and political decisions abound. Simultaneously, baseline/normative databases regarding related groundwater, surface water, air quality, and human health phenomena are just now being formulated via scientific collaborations between and among universities, healthcare organizations, and oil- and gas-producing companies.

From this “perfect storm” of bureaucracy, politics, scientific confusion, incomplete scientific studies, and medical disagreement have arisen both medical and legal charlatans, filing claims often crafted with little regard to time-honored toxicological arguments, dose-response curves, actual/documented exposures, scientific validation, or, sometimes, simple common sense. Related case reviews by formally trained Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) physicians often reveal serious breaches in common medical knowledge and basic ignorance of common toxicological principles. “Experts” abound, fed by those seeking related compensation.

The presenter, who has lived and practiced in an extremely active Marcellus zone for the past five years, will objectively address the known and comparative toxicities of typical HVHFs; the new and ongoing human-health studies in this area; the emerging healthcare-organization collaborations toward creation of a massive “data warehouse” on resultant human health; results of completed studies on HVHF-related environmental and human-health impact; and the need to involve trained, properly credentialed OEM physicians and toxicologists in the associated public-health arguments, drilling plans, and the shale gas risk assessment paradigm. In short, the presenter will describe the evolution and function of reliable experts in the field of medical geology in the shale-play era. Truly, the medical subspecialty of medical geology, within the specialty field of OEM, is being born from absolute need.