Here’s the retraction notice for “Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) and Oxygenated PAH (OPAH) Air–Water Exchange during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill:”
After publication the authors discovered a mistake in the air concentration calculations. PAH and OPAH air concentrations reported in the original article are therefore incorrect. The calculation error resulted from using incorrect units of the ideal gas constant and improper cell linkages in the spreadsheet used to adjust air concentrations for sampling temperature. Correcting this error changes air concentrations significantly relative to those reported in the published article. This correction also changes some of the conclusions reported in the original article.
Due to the impact of this correction on the reported findings, all authors retract the original article. The original article was published on November 20, 2014, and retracted on June 29, 2016.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anderson told us that a corrected version of the fracking paper is due to be published by the same journal soon, and sent us the following text from it:
Closest to active wells, the [excess lifetime cancer] risk estimated for maximum residential exposure was 0.04 in a million, which is below the U.S. EPA’s acceptable risk level. Overall, risk estimates decreased 30% when comparing results from samplers closest to active wells to those farthest. This work suggests that natural gas extraction is contributing PAHs to the air, below levels that would increase cancer risk.
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Q: “honest spreadsheet error”?????
According to Energy In Depth, the authors also ignored previous data that have suggested fracking is safe.
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As a researcher and someone who publishes and reviews reports for publications, I am amazed that a "spreadsheet error" can go undetected and only get picked up 12 months after release and damage done. Will retraction get as much attention?
I think fracking needs to be tightly controlled and so does the examination and reporting of impact on environment and water quality.
Have a great weekend,
GN
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