‘UK Government buried fracking pollution warning’

A UK government report concluding that shale gas extraction increases air pollution was left unpublished for three years and only released four days after ministers approved fracking in Lancashire, it has emerged.

Professor Paul Monks, chairman of the [Air Quality Expert Group], said: "The thing that surprised me was you think the main sources of air pollution are going to be coming from the actual process of fracking, but it is as much all the industry – diesel generators, lorries running up and down roads, and all the stuff used to support it. If you have any industrial process at a local level you are going to get an impact on air quality." It is estimated the UK could eventually have 12,500 fracking wells.

Two doctors have used an open letter to question Energy Minister Claire Perry's ethics and ask whether local people were being "used as guinea pigs".