An Unexpected Side Effect of Fracking: Chlamydia

[dufus]

Texas counties with high shale drilling activity experience hike in rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea, but not syphilis for some reason. But no association was found in North Dakota or Colorado, Yalies report

 

 

To the consternation of fracking fans everywhere, researchers at the Yale School of Public Health this weekend confirmed a correlation reported two years earlier between intense fracking activity and a local increase in certain sexually transmitted diseases. The first study had been in Ohio; the new one was in Texas.

 

Other side effects of fracking include earthquakes, methane emissions, groundwater contamination, sundry pollution, hydrocarbon spills and health risks, but the risks to health usually cited are silicosis and congenital heart defects, not STDs. Yet here we are.

 

In relevant Texas counties, the researchers found heightened rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea, but for some reason not syphilis, reports senior author Nicole Deziel of the Yale School of Public Health, writing with Joshua Warren and Elise Elliott of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

 

Rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia rose 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in fracking-intense Texan counties compared to Texan counties without any fracking, they found.

 

“The lack of an association between shale drilling activity and rates of syphilis may be because this STI occurs most commonly in men who have sex with men, which compose only a small proportion of the male population, making it difficult to study,” writes the team. They don’t mention herpes. (The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also says syphilis is more common among men.)

 

Why might rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia in Texas fracking fields be higher? Because fracking is a labor-intense industry that often involves “importing” specialized workers, the scientists explain. 

 

Who are these mobile workers? Young men living in temporary camps with limited connections to the community, who seek company as young men do, the authors elaborate.

 

There was no information on condom use rates among these migratory males.

 

The paper published this weekend merely reinforces prior work published in PLoS ONE in 2018, which found similar results in Ohio: a 21% increase in chlamydia and a 19% increase in gonorrhea in fracking countries, and no increase in syphilis.

 

“Similar experiences with other migratory labor movements have long been recognized to increase risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV,” the authors reported in 2018.

 

To be clear, it isn't only roaming men who could constitute a problem. An unrelated 2013 study done in China found high rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea infection in migrating groups as opposed to sedentary ones, but noted that being female was a high risk factor. In both sexes, though, frequent social activities and frequent travel correlated with higher rates STI-associated risk behaviors. 

 

And meanwhile in Texas, “The findings...add to the evidence of the social impacts in communities hosting the shale gas industry,” states Deziel. She does not explain why no associations between intense fracking and the clap was found in Colorado or North Dakota. It does beg more checking to see if the increases reported in Texas and previously in Ohio were coincidental, but there is no question that fracking harms the environment and likely health as well.

 

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