We Deserve Better

More than 2 years after they were released, Gov. Shapiro still has not acknowledged the alarming results of the 3 health studies from the University of Pittsburgh and his Department of Health. Those studies showed that young Pennsylvanians had 5-7 times increased risk of developing lymphoma if they lived up to one mile from a fracked gas well, and dangerous birth outcomes and severe asthma attacks up to 10 miles away. Other public health studies done by other researchers in PA have also been ignored.

We know Gov. Shapiro is aware of the studies and the results — he has them in his possession because we hand-delivered them to his office.

It is irresponsible for the Governor to not acknowledge the results and the implications of the health studies commissioned by his predecessor, conducted by his own DOH, and paid for by PA taxpayers.

Instead, Gov. Shapiro has disparaged the work of the researchers and nonprofit organizations advocating for the health and well-being of Pennsylvanians.

Make no mistake, Gov. Shapiro knows very well that fracking damages our health in PA. When he was attorney general, he saw the damage with his own eyes and heard the testimony with his own ears about how dangerous fracking was and how badly it was harming landowners and residents.

• He is well aware of the health and safety risks industry workers face.

• He is well aware that fracking pollutes the air and contaminates the water we all share — something we know beyond a reasonable doubt.

• He is well aware of the studies showing that some of the chemicals used in fracking can damage our bodies and increase cancer risk, especially among children in PA.

• He knows that residents living near landfills and rivers in PA are at risk from the huge, unsolved problem of toxic and radioactive fracking waste.

• He even knows about study after study showing that fracking accelerates climate change.

Governor Shapiro knows how damaging fracking is to the environment, to the climate, and to the health of his constituents. He knows by supporting the industry he is complicit in the damage, even though he promised when he was AG that he would go after industry pollutors and be a champion for residents impacted by fracking. I think Governor Shapiro is desperate to find just one study that shows fracking is safe to get him off the hook — even if he has to conduct that study himself with his buddy at CNX. But there are no peer-reviewed studies — ZERO — showing that fracking can be done without harming human health, the environment, and the planet’s climate system.

Gov. Shapiro’s “radically transparent” experiment with CNX has gone radically wrong. Instead of choosing to defend Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to clean air, pure water, and a healthy environment — for us, for our kids, and for generations to come — Gov. Shapiro has chosen to defend the interests of a dirty and dangerous industry that directly and indirectly threatens us with harm. He has chosen to ignore the scientific research linking fracking to a variety of cradle-to-grave health harms. He has chosen to be a cheerleader for fracked gas projects like LNG, blue hydrogen, and gas-fired AI data centers instead of being a champion for public health and well-being — the type of champion all Pennsylvanians expected of him when he was elected governor.

We deserve better. Our children deserve better if they are to inherit the promise of a clean and healthy Pennsylvania for generations to come.

Ned Ketyer, MD, FAAP

President, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania

Medical Advisor, Environmental Health Project

AAP Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change