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North Carolina gets a Texas-sized warning on fracking
...Among the chemicals the study found at dangerously high levels were benzene, a known cancer-causing chemical that was detected in one sample at 55 times the Texas standard for long-term health effects. Naphthalene, a potential human carcinogen, was found at levels 3.6 times the standard. Detected levels of xylenes, potent neurotoxins, were double the long-term health standard.
Other chemicals found at levels exceeding TCEQ's health standards were dimethyl sulfide, methyl ethyl disulfide, ethyl-methyl-disulfide, trimethyl benzene, 1,2,4-trimethyl benzene, carbonyl sulfide, carbon disulfide, methyl pyridine and dimethyl pyridine.
In response, TCEQ conducted its own study, testing blood and urine samples from 28 people living in or near Dish. While it did find elevated levels of some toxic compounds in people's bodies, it attributed those to other exposures such as cigarette smoking and household cleaning products. However, TCEQ acknowledged that its study had limitations -- including the fact that it was based on a one-time sample even though the compounds of concern typically stay in the body for only a few hours.
TCEQ's findings did not assuage Tillman's worries. When his sons suffered three severe nosebleeds in the middle of the night during a single week in late May 2010, he decided to leave. In March 2011 the family moved to Aubrey, Texas -- 15 miles from the nearest gas well. Since then, he reports, his sons have not experienced a single middle-of-the-night nosebleed.
But it's not only the health impact of fracking that upset Tillman. As a conservative who was a registered Republican until he became disgusted over former Vice President Dick Cheney's role in securing the "Halliburton loophole" exempting fracking fluid ingredients from disclosure under environmental laws, Tillman is offended by the impact the gas industry has on private property rights. He says that the bill North Carolina is considering is especially troubling on that front. North Carolina gets a Texas-sized warning on fracking
North Carolina Senate outlaws disclosure of fracking fluid secrets
(Reuters) - The North Carolina Senate on Thursday voted to make it a crime to disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, even as big U.S. oil companies elsewhere consider releasing more information about the fluids to address public concerns about the environment.
The legislation, proposed by three Republican state senators and passed by a vote of 35-12, aims to protect trade secrets about fluids used to extract oil or gas from wells using fracking, which blasts sand, water and chemicals deep beneath the earth's surface.
Environmentalists concerned about groundwater contamination and health risks want more information made public... North Carolina Senate outlaws disclosure of fracking fluid secrets | Reuters
I hear it's a mandatory 4 month jail sentence for publishing the chemicals used in fracking. Once pumped into the groundwater supply there is no chance of cleaning them up...ever.
Fracking stands to be one of the worst environmental disasters in human history for its potential to cause un-cleanable forever toxic carcinogens. It will lay waste to anywhere in the US it is allowed to go forward in.
If there was ever a time to revive Earth First, this is it.
I'd like to see Stephen Colbert [before his home state just south of there gets fracking shoved down its throat without public input], take on Haliburton and go to jail [and get a Pulitzer] for exposing what's used in fracking on his show. He could go out of Comedy Central with a big bang. A Nobel Peace Prize might be in order too. Would look nice on his shelf of prizes..