A pioneering public health researcher has made an indelible impact on regulating the oil and gas industry's environmental impacts, especially when it comes to hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking.
Lisa McKenzie altered the trajectory of her work in the 2010s, when she employed her knowledge of environmental chemistry and epidemiology to lead seminal studies quantifying the health effects of fracking, Colorado Newsline explained.
Fracking involves forcing water, sand, and chemicals into the ground to crack shale and release fossil fuels to be extracted.
The practice has mushroomed, with wells multiplying and moving closer to populated areas from California to Pennsylvania, the report detailed.
The expansion of fracking, which caught on around 2010, turned the United States into one of the leading oil-producing countries in the world; it extracted a record 12.9 million barrels a day in 2023.
However, Colorado Newsline shared that a majority of Americans oppose fracking operations, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
McKenzie believes that the body of evidence linking the extraction of dirty fuels by the oil and gas industry to various human health impacts may be reaching a tipping point.
"There is starting to be enough evidence to say that living near oil and gas wells, in these areas with a lot of oil and gas development, may have health consequences, particularly for the most vulnerable populations," McKenzie told the outlet.
She further explained that consistency in the results across a variety of areas and methodologies provides heightened confidence in the body of research.
Her pivot to research on human health and the fracking industry led her to co-author one of the first studies on the topic, which garnered national attention when it appeared in 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment.
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Majorly 😥 "Her studies provided some of the earliest empirical evidence suggesting associations with outcomes like adverse birth outcomes and pediatric cancer risks," said Nicole Deziel, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health.
Deziel cited McKenzie's work on those adverse health effects during her 2023 testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget.
"The strongest evidence relates to fracking's impact on children's health, including perinatal outcomes, such as low birth weight, preterm births, congenital anomalies, asthma, and even childhood cancers," Deziel said in a Yale report.
Fracking sites have been found to have up to 700 times the federal standard of benzene — a known carcinogen — in their wastewater, which can seep into surrounding soil and contaminate local water supplies.
McKenzie's work on fracking's health impacts has reverberated through the scientific community and informed numerous regulations across the country along with some statewide bans.
Joan Casey, an environmental epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Washington, told Colorado Newsline that what's unique about McKenzie's research is pairing a community's exposure to air pollution and environmental stressors with detailed health assessments.
Meagan Weisner, a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, collaborated with McKenzie on a 2023 study that found a correlation between proximity to oil and gas pads and various health issues.
"She's very pragmatic in the way she approaches research — she says, 'We may find nothing, and there may be no correlation between oil and gas and these symptoms,'" Weisner said. "That's not what we found."
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