Partnering Across the Nation to Inform the Public about Fracking Science

Photo source: NY Times

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, and unconventional natural gas drilling operations continue to be polarizing subjects across the nation, and that’s no different for North Carolina. Residents, lawmakers, industry and the environmental community in the state continue to grapple with the possible effects of fracking and the associated industrial operations.

In a project made possible through supplemental funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the UNC COEC staff has been teaming with colleagues at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Cincinnati and Rochester to understand the factors that affect the public’s perception of risk related to fracking. The group is working to develop and administer a survey for people living near current or proposed drilling sites. Findings will be used to design outreach and communication strategies to educate health professionals, environmental health scientists, policymakers and community members, and to inform the national research agenda to address environmental health impacts of drilling. This project will build on the work of COECs in Ohio, New York and North Carolina, who conducted interviews with health professionals, local government officials, environmental and community groups, landowners and educators to better understand health concerns and information needs related to fracking.

”This supplemental funding from NIEHS has enabled CEHS to build partnerships with other universities, to understand how environmental health issues like hydraulic fracturing affect a broad spectrum of residents in a community and to inform the way we convey key environmental health messages for the public,” says Kathleen Gray, UNC’s COEC director and one of the lead investigators on these two projects.  “We hope that our findings will help us and other outreach programs to effectively communicate emerging environmental health science to vulnerable populations and community audiences.”