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Jerome Paulson on Unconventional Natural Gas Extraction and Public Health
Feb 1, 2012
Environmental and Occupational Health Professor Jerome Paulson was a co-organizer for the conference "Epidemiologic & Public Health Considerations of Shale Gas Production: The Missing Link," which was sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment (MACCHE) and Physicians, Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSE). Although the shale gas extraction technique of hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, is used in many parts of the country to extract natural gas from shale formations, there is a lack of epidemiologic evidence on its health impacts. Dr. Paulson delivered the conference's opening plenary talk and led a workshop.
Physicians and public health professionals at the event called for a halt to hydraulic fracturing until its health impacts can be properly evaluated. Journalists from several news outlets reported on this message, and Dr. Paulson was quoted in articles from AFP, Bloomberg, and Reuters.
Dr. Paulson - a pediatrician, director of MACCHE, and now a Professor of Pediatrics in GW's School of Medicine & Health Sciences - has been educating his fellow physicians about the potential health impacts of unconventional natural gas extraction. He recently gave presentations at Abington Memorial Hospital and Lancaster General Hospital in Pennsylvania and at the Philadelphia Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility.