03 Oct Report Shows Increased Traffic Accidents, Civil Disturbances, and Sexually Transmitted Infections in High Drilling Areas

October 3, 2013 –

A new report from Food & Water Watch finds that negative social costs follow when high levels of drilling occur. The new report, The Social Costs of Fracking, conducts a case study into the fracking boom in Pennsylvania. Highlights from the report include:

• Fracking is associated with more heavy-truck crashes: Heavy-truck crashes rose 7.2 percent in heavily fracked rural Pennsylvania counties (with at least one well for every 15 square miles) but fell 12.4 in unfracked rural counties.
• Fracking is associated with more social disorder arrests: Disorderly conduct arrests increased by 17.1 percent in heavily fracked rural counties, compared to 12.7 percent in unfracked rural counties.
• Fracking is associated with more cases of sexually transmitted infections: After fracking, the average increase in chlamydia and gonorrhea cases was 62 percent greater in heavily fracked rural counties than in unfracked rural counties.

Click here to read the full report.