Understanding Exposures from Natural Gas Drilling Puts Current Air Standards to the Test

Brown, D.,  Weinberger, B., Lewis, C., Bonaparte, H., Reviews on Environmental Health, March 2014:  (Read more….)

 

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/22/482/

Anthony Ingraffea does Global Warming 101 in his usual clear, precise, easy-to-understand way…

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/21/480/

Flower Mound cancer study may expand

When state health officials take a new look at cancer cases in Flower Mound in the coming months, their study will be based on 13 years of data up to 2011 from the Texas Cancer Registry. It also may include analyses of smaller areas within the community than previously studied.

“The number crunching is already in the works,” said Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The agency recently announced that it would be conducting an updated cancer analysis in Flower Mound. The new investigation comes in response to a study by a University of Texas lecturer who challenged the agency’s conclusion that there was no cancer cluster in the community.  (Read more….)

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/21/477/

Marcellus Waste Radioactivity In Water Leaching From Landfills.

“First they poisoned the workers and  then they came for the general public.” http://bit.ly/1jvji8g

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/21/473/

Gas Workers Risk Silica Exposure

April 10, 2014

By IAN HICKS Staff Writer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

WHEELING – Breathing only a tiny amount of silica dust per day – enough, roughly, to cover Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s nose on a dime – can put a worker at risk for myriad health problems, according to Michael Breitenstein of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.   (Read more…) (Also see other articles on this GasVets’ News and Research page.)

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/10/453/

Theo Colborn  dissects what “oil patch” jobs really look like.  

The contrast between the feel-good nature of [gas industry] ads and the reality of many of the jobs they tout is also stunning. There are jobs available, yes, but most of the workers in the gas fields are low-paid laborers who have no job security, no health benefits, no unions and no recourse against industry abuses.

These workers are not protected under the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration because they do not work inside buildings or in a deep hole in the ground. They are just now getting some attention from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health –– a good thing, because injured workers who have become so incapacitated that they will never again be able to hold down a job are routinely denied workers’ compensation. Those who get sick are generally unable to prove it’s because they were exposed to something on the job.  (Read more….)

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/448/

Texas companies with fatalities not on violator list

OSHA’s list of most dangerous workplaces includes no Texas oil or gas companies despite multiple fatalities

Monday, February 24, 2014

HOUSTON (AP) — Injury claims, government data and public records of oil field accidents since the start of the onshore drilling and fracking boom in 2007 show the federal government failed to implement safety standards and procedures, according to a Houston Chronicle investigation.

The examination also shows a lack of government inspections and shoddy practices by many oil and gas companies. The newspaper says the result is a toll of badly injured or killed workers.  (Read more….)

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/446/

Hospital CEO Blames Influx of Uninsured Gas Workers for Jersey Shore Hospital’s Operating Losses.

JERSEY SHORE, Pa. – The first operating loss in about five years at a north-central Pennsylvania hospital is a sign of the influx of natural gas field workers without health insurance, the facility’s CEO said.

Jersey Shore Hospital president and CEO Carey Plummer told the Sun-Gazette of Williamsport that many subcontractors attracted to the area’s Marcellus Shale drilling boom do not cover employees.

That has brought a growing number of uninsured people to the community-owned, nonprofit hospital, Plummer said.  (Read more…)

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/444/

AFL-CIO Urges OSHA to Address Crystalline Silica Exposures of Gas Workers

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/441/

OSHA Crystalline Silica Fact Sheet

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/437/

Water Truck Worker Blows Whistle

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/435/

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) identified exposure to airborne silica as a health hazard to workers conducting some hydraulic fracturing operations during recent  field studies.

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/430/

Body of Shale Gas Worker Found after Chevron Explosion and Fire.  Chevron Offers Pizza Coupons.

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/428/

 

Shale Gas Industry Puts Workers at Risk in Rush to Frack. 

Labor leaders and health professionals, along with a broad coalition of citizen groups committed to halting shale gas development, assert that risks to workers in the shale gas industry, “from stem to stern,” are being overlooked in the rush to frack.

Five critical issues are:

• Silicosis caused by exposure to crystalline silica sand, a”proppant” used in fracking, which is inhaled by workers during mining, transportation and transfer
• Hydrogen sulfide, a potentially deadly gas which occurs in fracked gas processing operations. Deadly levels have been measured but covered up, and an exemption bars federal oversight.
• Chemical exposures on the job producing skin lesions, severe headaches, gastrointestinal pain, respiratory distress and other symptoms, with inadequate treatment and reporting
• A culture of fear discourages workers from asking for protective gear; workers are also actively directed to participate in environmental cover-ups. Because most shale gas jobs are transient, non-union jobs, workers don’t feel safe speaking up.
• Dangerously explosive methane puts utility workers, residents and rescue responders at risk on the distribution end. Pipeline explosions kill.   (Read more….)

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/426/

OSHA Inspected Halliburton Fracking on Wootton Gas Pad in Liberty, Pa

I {Vera Scroggins] called OSHA months ago to check out the silica dust clouds on the frack sites and they inspected the WPX Gas Site known as Wootton at 1283 Mill Road, Liberty, Pa. 16930 on 4/4/2013 and citation issued on 6/19/2013.

The Company fracking is Halliburton Energy Service, Inc.

Citation is :

29 CFR 1910.1000(c): The employer did not ensure that an employee’s exposure

to any substance listed in table Z-3, in any 8-hour work shift of a 40 hour work week,

did not exceed the 8-hour time weighted average limit given for that substance in the

table.

a) Halliburton Energy Service: An employee, Sand Counter, was exposed to respirable

crystalline silica at an 8-hour time-weighted average of 0.585 milligrams per cubic meter

of air, approximately 1.5 times the calculated Permissible Exposure Limit of 0.394

milligrams per cubic meter of air. Sampling was performed for 231 minutes on April 4, 2013.

Date by Which Violation Must Be Abated: 9/22/2013

Proposed Penalty : $5610.00

OSHA US Dept. of Labor Inspection no: 899235

this is the first time I know of that OSHA has inspected our county and found a violation.

there are only 2 inspectors from the Wilkes Barre, Pa. office for 20 counties !!

OSHA office has not received more funding for more inspectors and could use them.

They recommend methods of control:
like:

Utilize alternative proppants:

Utilize dust collection systems ( bag houses ) to capture the silica dust ejected from
thief hatches on top of sand movers during refilling operations.

Discontinue practice of transferring sand from trucks to sand movers while employees
are working on top of the sand movers and/or adjacent to the thief hatches.

HALLIBURTON has to be told to do this after how many years of FRACKING and
and what about the neighbors living next to and near these fracking sites??!!

Who is protecting or watching over their SILICA Exposure??

Halliburton has to do a whole plan of abatement of engineering measures to control
this situation with silica.

Must be abated by 9/22/13

POSTING: A copy of the Citation must be posted immediately in a prominent place
at or near the location of the violation.

attached are some of the documents on this case:

Vera Scroggins
Citizens for Clean Water
Susquehanna County, Pa.
607 237 9685

https://gasvets.org/2014/04/07/400/