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Pennsylvania man, ravaged by fracking side-effects, takes own life
At 46, Carl Stiles suffered from memory loss, tremors and severe headaches even after fleeing his home, where fracking had contaminated the water. He took his own life last Thursday.
Pennsylvania man, ravaged by fracking side-effects, takes own life
At 46, Carl Stiles suffered from memory loss, tremors and severe headaches even after fleeing his home, where fracking had contaminated the water. He took his own life last Thursday, and his widow believes the shale gas companies drilling near the Stiles' home in Sugar Run, Bradford County, are to blame.
Iris Marie Bloom of Protecting Our Waters, an anti-fracking advocacy group, spoke with Stiles' widow, Judy: "Carl was in so much pain. He had severe headaches, memory loss, and tremors; he was shaking. He went from medicine to medicine and nothing helped," Judy Stiles said. "People call us stupid because we drank the water. But we didn’t get replacement water [from the gas company] until October 2010… You still have to shower, wash dishes… You can’t live without water.”
The couple walked away from their home, but it was too late: the whole family was manifesting various symptoms, and the couple's daughter is having seizures. Bloom tells CP that Stiles was exposed to "explosive levels of methane," radon, radium and uranium, and that "a Geiger counter went off when passed over [the Stiles'] bodies." But while symptoms were evident, diagnosing the illness was much more difficult. "Without having the power to get these corporations to disclose exactly what they're using and with the ability to give the EPA a kind of higher authority to regulate the industry, it's very hard after the fact — and in this case they've been out of heir home for over a year — it's very hard to pinpoint what the impacts might have been."
A recent peer-reviewed study in New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy reported significant impacts of fracking on animals and owners across six states, with findings ranging from reproductive impacts, to neurological effects, to sudden death. The authors write: "Documentation of cases in six states strongly implicates exposure to gas drilling operations in serious health effects on humans, companion animals, livestock, horses, andwildlife…. Without completestudies, given the many apparent adverse impacts on human and animal health,a ban on shale gas drilling is essential for the protection of public health."
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