Ms Julia Walsh:

The health impacts in the short and long term are significant. For the record, I will submit to all members the compendium of scientific, medical and media findings prepared by Concerned Health Professionals of New York to demonstrate the risks and harms of fracking. While Dr. Kathy Nolan was unable to attend, she would be happy to answer questions and set out the positions for social responsibility. Right now, the compendium contains more than 1,500 reports and studies outlining the different risks and issues, including the health impacts we are seeing in Pennsylvania in heavily fracked areas where there are cancer clusters. This includes 67 children in rural areas of Pennsylvania who developed cancer. The area did not have anything like those numbers before. Examples include Ewing sarcoma, which is a very rare form of bone cancer. While there are only a couple of hundred cases of that cancer across the USA, there are quite a few in the counties where those children live.

Unfortunately, we are likely to see more and more of this. One of the things we are grappling with in the USA is trying to get a sense of the number of people who have had to settle with these multibillion dollar companies in signing non-disclosure agreements under which they are not allowed to speak out publicly about the health and other impacts on their families. This industry is shrouded in secrecy because what they are doing is egregious and violates human rights and the environment. We are struggling to overcome that in the USA. I will put the committee in touch with people and put some information on the committee.