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The same researchers responsible for a study claiming premature birth rates are high near shale gas wells in Pennsylvania — even though they were actually below the national average — and a study claiming fracking is associated with increased asthma flare-ups — even though state data shows heavily-drilled counties had far lower asthma hospitalization rates than counties with no shale gas production at all — have put out a new study today that has just about as much merit.

Based off a survey of Geisinger Clinic patients who suffer from at least one of the three conditions, the study claims, “New research suggests that Pennsylvania residents with the highest exposure to active natural gas wells operated by the hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) industry are nearly twice as likely to suffer from a combination of migraine headaches, chronic nasal and sinus symptoms and severe fatigue.” In other words they’re blaming increased incidences of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), migraine headaches and fatigue (the most common symptoms people have across the board!) on fracking.

But making that stretch isn’t surprising considering that one of the researchers is Brian Schwartz, a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, an anti-fossil fuel organization that has called fracking a “virus.”

With this research team’s track record of biased studies and activism considered — along with the sheer absurdity of blaming such common ailments on fracking — it comes to no surprise that their conclusions are (yet again) highly suspect. Here are four facts to know:

Fact #1: Vast majority of the study participants ...