Achi news desk-
A group of healthcare professionals are warning that evidence from a national study shows that shale gas extraction is a risk to human health.
The Canadian Journal of Public Health released a study in March citing mounting medical evidence that fracking can lead to serious health problems such as birth defects, childhood cancers, asthma and heart disease.
Lung NB President and CEO Melanie Langille said the idea of developing the industry in New Brunswick is very concerning.
“Not only from an increase in air pollution from the use of those fossil fuels but the significant health risks for the workers and the people who live in the communities where this oil can be extracted,” said Langille. “It is very alarming for health advocates who have been saying for years that there are significant health risks to this industry”.
A moratorium on shale gas development in New Brunswick was implemented in 2014.
The Liberal Government introduced the fracking ban a year after violent demonstrations in Rexton near the First Nations community of Elsipogtog in 2013.
A partial ban was lifted for the Sussex area in 2018 and now healthcare advocates are warning it could be widened due to recent comments from Premier Blaine Higgs.
De-Ann Sheppard, Atlantic regional representative for the Canadian Environmental Nurses Association, said the health of New Brunswick residents depends on transitioning from fossil fuels.
“Actually, I really thought so [fracking] was completely off the table because when it was brought forward there was so much evidence. Not just the impact of the health care system but the ecological impact that spills over from that,” Sheppard said.
Sheppard said she truly believes the average Atlantic Canadian thinks fracking is off the table.
“Because it’s such a contentious issue,” Sheppard said.
Retired family physician Renée Turcotte, who is also chair of the New Brunswick chapter of the Canadian Association of Environmental Physicians, believes the health care system is already under significant strain and reintroducing natural gas development could make it even worse.
“Why add something we now know causes human health problems?” asked Turcotte. “We should keep the moratorium and ban fracking once and for all because now we know more. Even if we do more studies, we might do more studies, it would be good to have more studies in Canada. But we want a permanent ban on fracking.”
Sheppard said First Nations communities tend to be more affected when it comes to environmental issues like fracking.
“We know for a fact that fracking introduces multiple chemicals into the water system and it releases and contaminates the air and water,” Sheppard said.
Higgs has gone on the record before saying that he does not believe that shale gas development is harmful to the environment and that natural gas development is being done in other parts of the country.
CTV News asked the prime minister or the natural resources minister to comment in the legislature Thursday, but were told they were unavailable.
The group of healthcare advocates have sent a letter to Higgs and all state MLAs detailing the latest findings on the health issues fracking could cause and are calling for the government to legislate to ban it permanently in New Brunswick.
