Letter to the editor: Study links fracking, infant mortality

Fracking is a deadly process, as revealed in the newest scientific study showing an increased correlation between fracking for shale gas and infant mortality, authored by Christopher Busby and Joseph Mangano and published in the Journal of Environmental Protection.

Previous studies have shown links between fracking and low birth weights, miscarriages and birth defects. But this latest study finds fracking alarmingly connected to neonatal mortality, caused by its toxic pollution of air and water. The study reveals a new culture of death targeting the least able to defend themselves.

An alarming disconnect exists, however, among those in the “right to life” movement, who abhor infant death associated with abortion but are unwilling to acknowledge the same lethal end when fracking is the perpetrator. Their obsequious promotion of shale gas precludes them from condemning this newest threat to life.

Maryland, New York and Vermont have all banned fracking because its deleterious health effects far exceed any economic benefit. How can anyone still condone this industry that epitomizes a culture of sickness and death, especially for the newborn?

The “right to life” movement must include the babies dying because of fracking's harmful effects. This new antithesis to life must be recognized for what it is.

Fracking is not only an abomination against creation; it is now an affront against God's most vulnerable. Make no doubt about it, fracking kills.

Ron Slabe

Upper Burrell