The University of Maryland School of Public Health published a study in July, 2014 for the Maryland Department of the Environment which concluded that the likelihood for negative public health impacts for Maryland communities in the areas currently targeted for hydraulic fracturing to be moderately-high to high in seven of the eight areas they studied.  These areas range from "cumulative  exposures/risks" to "air quality."  This assessment agrees with the great majority of scientific studies published nationally on the question of the health hazards posed by fracking.  Opening up western Maryland to fracking would also spoil the natural beauty of the landscape, and thereby negatively affect outdoor recreation in the area.  Thus, we call upon State Senator Joan Carter Conway,  Chair of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee,  to support a bill that would ban the hazardous practice of fracking in the State of Maryland.