Ineos back ruling on misleading fracking claims

This week the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that Friends of the Earth was unable to support claims published on one of its leaflets chemicals used in fracking were dangerous to humans and falling house prices and risks of cancer were caused by fracking.

Friends of the Earth agreed not to reproduce the anti-fracking leaflet in question.

Donna Hume, a Friends of the Earth senior campaigner, said: “The ASA offered to drop the case without ruling after we confirmed a particular leaflet was no longer being used. We continue to campaign against fracking because burning fossil fuels is dangerous for the climate.

“The process of exploring for and extracting shale gas is inherently risky for the environment.”

Ineos shale operations director Tom Pickering said: “We have previously offered to meet with Friends of the Earth, and also Friends of the Earth Scotland, to have a grown-up science based discussion of the issues around shale gas extraction but, not surprisingly, neither organisation wishes to engage with us.

“We will continue, however, to try to make this meeting happen as our energy and manufacturing sectors are too important to allow fake facts to influence the debate. We look forward to continuing our dialogue based on the true realities of shale gas.”