A team of NIEHS-funded researchers met with citizens of Carroll County, Ohio, Jan. 9 marking one of the first steps in the new one-year, community-engaged pilot study of fracking and air quality.
Hosted by Carroll Concerned Citizens, the team is mounting a recruitment effort for a new NIEHS-funded pilot study of landowners potentially affected by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the rural Appalachian Ohio county. The researchers plan to place passive air sampling devices at 4-6 sites on or adjacent to land where gas is being extracted by the unconventional natural gas drilling (UNGD) method (see fact sheet (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2014/2/science-community/file64...) (153KB) .
The researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Oregon State University (OSU), led by UC Professor Erin Haynes, Dr.P.H.,are also recruiting individuals to wear wristband personal monitors that can measure their exposure to some 1,000 chemicals in the air, in what has rapidly become the most shale-drilled area in the state.
The study is funded by a grant from NIEHS to the UC Center for Environmental Genetics led by Shuk-Mei Ho, Ph.D. OSU researchers Kim Anderson, Ph.D., and Laurel Kincl, Ph.D., are also funded by NIEHS grants.