Recently, residents of Denton, Texas voted to ban hydraulic fracturing within the city limits. One way to read the results from the referendum is to conclude that the verdict is in: unconventional drilling for oil and gas poses enough health risks to nearby communities that it had to be stopped in the Dallas-suburb home to drilling innovation.
But is fracking really to blame for recently high incidents of asthma, nose bleed and nausea reported by Denton residents? As a pioneering city for hydraulic fracturing, the practice has been in place for decades in and around Denton. What’s novel to the city is the anti-fracking activism and its coverage in both the local and national media. Continue reading “Hydraulic Fracturing & The Nocebo Effect”