New York State’s Department of Health said earlier this month that it had “reviewed and evaluated relevant emerging scientific literature investigating the environmental health and community health dimensions of HVHF (high volume hydraulic fracturing”

However, the IPAA’s Washington-based advocacy group Energy In Depth noted that the DOH admitted it did not have any evidence linking fraccing to health impacts.

The DOH cited a study by Lisa McKenzie from the Colorado School of Public Health which suggested a link between fraccing and birth defects, yet IPAA said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (which provided the state birth records used for the paper) disavowed the researchers.

The department’s executive director, paediatrician Dr Larry Wolk, issued a statement debunking the researchers, warning that the public could “easily be misled” by the paper which he said relied on “miniscule” statistical differences. He furthered that the researchers also ignored “many factors” besides natural gas development.

IPAA said that as the paper came under closer scrutiny one of paper’s co-authors was forced to admit that it was “certainly not a conclusive study and it doesn’t demonstrate that pollutants related to shale development have caused birth defects”

The same group of researchers also take an anti-fossil fuels stance – routinely noted by “anti-energy groups” – and even wrote the script for a celebrity YouTube video attacking Governor John Hickenlooper which demanded a state wide ban on oil and gas development in Colorado, claiming fraccing “makes climate change worse”

The agenda seems to extend to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who posted a series of retweets from anti-fraccing groups cheering his decision throughout the day of the announcement of the DOH report.

The DOH also said it consulted an “unpublished 2013 revision to a 2012 working paper” by Cornell University doctoral candidate Elaine Hill which purported there was a “causal” relationship between gas development and low birth rates.

The New York Times, however, said that paper “would have been an unremarkable draft of a graduate student’s research results had it not been disseminated last week with the help of a public relations firm retained by non-profit group New Yorkers Against Fracking and featured at a public forum run in Manhattan by Democrats in the state Senate”

“The DOH described the paper under the category ‘Birth Outcomes’ but outside experts interviewed by the New York Times said the paper was devoid of meaningful data and a badly suspect piece of work,” IPAA said, with one expert saying he would be “amazed if it gets published in a reputable journal”

The DOH also cited a study published by the Endocrine Society suggesting fraccing resulted in air pollution that would ultimately “disrupt the body’s hormones” and lead to infertility, cancer, deformities and birth defects.

Yet just after it was published, medical publication Clinical Advisor noted that the study had “a lack of direct identification of fracking chemicals in the tested water”

However, the researchers claim that “with fraccing on the rise, populations may face greater health risks from increased endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure, with those risks including infertility, cancer and birth defects”

“For an administration that promised to rely on ‘the science’ of fracking, Cuomo’s team instead chose to kowtow to Yoko Ono, [The Avengers,/i> actor] Mark Ruffalo and all of the environmental pressure groups in New York,” the IPAA said.

“The dubious basis upon which the continued fracking ban rests is a testament to that point.”