Fracking is a sensitive subject, as the contentious practice of drilling for shale gas has split advocates and opposition groups right down the middle. A recent study in Colorado showed that fracking pollution could have serious effects on unborn children.
Schools in Wisconsin have clearly taken this information to heart. The school system has installed new air filters in schools to prevent students in the New Auburn district from breathing in hazardous sands.
The effort will help prevent young kids and teens breathing in unclean air when in school but does not address the wider problem of hazardous sands when they are outside or at home, or for adults elsewhere in the state.
Wisconsin is currently experiencing something of a fracking boom thanks to the state’s natural quartz-based sand, which is ideal for penetrating in the fracking process. The state’s fracking industry is currently valued at about $1 billion.