New York's health commissioner says he plans a recommendation to Gov. Andrew Cuomo "in weeks" on whether the state should approve hydraulic fracturing.

Health Commissioner Nirav Shah also said he met with researchers from the Environmental Protection Agency and Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania within the past two weeks.

Preliminary results of the key Geisinger study are expected within a year. Some observers had raised concerns that waiting for results could delay a decision on whether to allow fracking in New York state.

But Cuomo said Monday that "nobody ever said that we were waiting for the studies to be finished."