Tim McDonnell on what fracking can do to your health: If you know one thing about fracking, it might be that the wells have been linked to explosive tap water. Of course, a tendency toward combustion isnt the biggest problem with gas-infused water; its what could happen to you when you drink it. Although the natural gas industry is notoriously tight-lipped about the ingredients of the chemical cocktails that get pumped down into wells, by now its widely known that the list often includes some pretty scary, dangerous stuff, including hydrochloric acid and ethylene glycol (a.k.a. antifreeze). Its also no secret that well sites release hazardous gases like methane and benzene (a carcinogen) into the atmosphere. So just how dangerous are fracking and other natural gas extraction processes for your health (not counting, for the sake of argument, explosions and earthquakes)? Is it true, as an activist-art campaign by Yoko Ono recently posited, that fracking kills? The answer to that second question is probably not, especially in the short term and if you dont work on or live across the street from a frack site (which, of course, some people in fact do). But that doesnt mean its okay to start fracking away next to kindergartens and nursing homes: Gas extraction produces a range of potentially health-endangering pollutants at nearly every stage of the process, according to a new paper by the California nonprofit Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy, released today in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed journal published by the National Institutes of Health. -Erika
Posted on: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 20:30:00 +0000
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