Toxic air pollution from fracking causes a wide spectrum of health problems for Americans across the country, an environmental group charged in a report released Tuesday.
"The health risks from fracking are not limited to what's in our drinking water -— oil and gas operations are also poisoning the air we breathe," said senior scientist Miriam Rotkin-Ellman of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which produced the report.
The report said Americans who live near oil and gas drilling wells are exposed to fracking-related air pollution in the form of chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde.
Fracking is a drilling process that blasts huge amounts of water mixed with sand and chemicals deep underground to break apart shale deposits and extract gas and oil from the rock's pores. It has spread across the country, leading to a production boom.