This article is part of our occasional series Life Under Threat, where we share the stories of families whose health has been put at risk by polluting industry, from “advanced recycling” plastics incinerators to AI data centers to oil and gas operations.
Lois Bower Bjornson, a Pennsylvania mother and advocate, has seen how fracking—the process of extracting natural gas from rock formations underground—can have grave consequences for families and communities. She spreads the word about the climate and health impacts of methane and air pollution from fracking with her Frackland Tours through Washington County, her home and the most heavily fracked county of the state. These tours allow lawmakers, journalists, and neighbors to see the impact of oil and gas operations firsthand, showing the whole process, from the well pad where gas is extracted to compressor stations that push gas through pipelines to the chemical hubs and plastics facilities that use gas as a feedstock. Here she shares her family’s story and her work to fight for her community’s health.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission
As told to Isabel Vuittonet by Lois Bower Bjornson:
Fracking has been in Washington County for about 20 years. We have lived in the area for 21 years, and the big boom really took off around 18 years ago. I have four kids—my third son was about two when the drilling started nearby. At last count, there were 34 well pads that completely encompass our home. There is also a pipeline that connects to a compressor station and to the wells across the road and up the hill.
The landscape feels industrial. Just down the street from my house, there’s a staging facility used to store fracking and pipeline equipment. During a new frack, there are hundreds of trucks that sit idling for hours. The nearest well pad is right across the road. You can drive down any road in my small radius and find a well pad.
Local air quality maps, including the Oil and Gas Threat Map—an interactive tool showing areas impacted by fossil fuel development created by researchers at the environmental organizations FracTracker Alliance and Earthworks—show my home and community’s air quality in the unhealthy red zone. FracTracker also has a map that reveals pipelines crisscrossing our community like spaghetti.
I’ve been part of many health studies to understand how this affects my family. Because of my Frackland Tours, the Environmental Health Network reached out to me for their 2021 study, “Fractured: The Body Burden of Living Near Fracking.” They tested our urine, and we wore personal air monitors. Our urine and air samples were collected and tested for fracking chemicals.
The results were alarming. Our bodies contained benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, naphthalene, and other chemicals linked to fracking. I had the highest level of naphthalene, an industrial chemical linked to respiratory problems, blood disorders, and potential carcinogenic effects, even though I don’t work in an industrial setting. My third son had the highest levels of mandelic and hippuric acids. Mandelic acid indicates exposure to styrene, which can affect the nervous system and cause irritation, and hippuric acid is a biomarker for toluene exposure, associated with neurological effects, headaches, and dizziness. These chemicals came directly or indirectly from the fracking operations near our home.
I have seen studies that show children living within one to six miles of well pads face higher risks of lymphoma and leukemia. In southwestern Pennsylvania, we have some of the highest rates of rare cancers like Ewing sarcoma, acute myeloid leukemia, brain cancers, and neuroblastoma. The only new factor in our area is the increase in oil and gas activity.
My kids experienced health impacts growing up—nosebleeds, rashes, and other symptoms I now know are linked to the toxic chemicals in the air. My third son suffered severe nosebleeds so bad that he would have clots coming out of his mouth at the same time he was having the nosebleed. He would become lightheaded and anemic. His nosebleeds were so frequent and severe that it got to a point where he would hide them at school. My daughter developed a rash so severe that it looked like scalded skin.
Around the same time, our water quality changed. Fracking chemicals also can end up in municipal landfills, instead of hazardous landfills, under loopholes that label fracking waste as “residual” instead of hazardous. The leachate, or watery substance, from the breakdown of fracking waste was piped directly into our public water source, the Monongahela River. The local water treatment plant found that the microorganisms used to break down raw sewage were not working. An initial test by our state Department of Environmental Protection said everything was fine. Independent and additional tests from the water utility found that the microorganisms were dead and the only thing present in the water was fracking chemicals.
My father, who lived nearby, was one of the first people to alert me when he saw trucks “lined up all day long everyday 10-15 trucks!” that were pulling water from the river.
When fracking started here, doctors didn’t know about the health impacts. Pediatricians didn’t consider proximity to oil and gas when diagnosing illnesses, and some hospital staff were even prohibited from discussing possible links to oil and gas exposure. The oil and gas industry has built wings on hospitals, which only adds to the complexity and raises questions for me about influence.
I’ve been fighting for change for years, but the political battle is uphill. Pennsylvania is an extractive state, and the oil and gas lobbyists outnumber our legislators. We’re fighting for protective buffers to push new well pads farther from homes. The current setback is 500 feet, but well pads have grown from 8 to 10 boreholes to 20 to 40, making them mini industrial sites right next to people’s homes. Ideally, setbacks should be 2,500 feet or more because air pollution travels miles beyond the well pad.
Methane pollution is also a huge concern. It is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at heating the atmosphere. We live under a cloud of methane, and the current administration’s rollback of methane regulations threatens our health and environment. The industry’s claim that the rollbacks will bring jobs and other economic benefits to communities in the U.S. is just a smoke screen.
Despite the challenges, I remain hopeful. Most people are tired of the industry’s impact and are demanding change. But without real choices, such as alternatives to fossil fuels, the struggle continues. We literally do not have a choice, especially in Washington County. The oil and gas industry touches every part of our lives, from the air we breathe to the water we drink. The fight to protect our families is far from over.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission