This website is dedicated to and for the use of workers in oil and gas, both current and past, their families, communities and friends.
(Gas Vets note: Courts and corporations have more importance than the public health…)
After his failed attempts to fight the state’s oil and gas law in court, Alfonso Rodriguez, M.D., is ready to sign a nondisclosure form to view a full list of ingredients in hydraulic fracturing fluid. If only someone could tell him where to find it. Read more at the Hazleton Standard Speaker…..
Employers failed to include bonus payments when calculating overtime rates, didn’t pay for time spent working off-the-clock and paid flat rates despite the hours worked by employees.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is calling for a study aimed at reversing the increase in workplace deaths that has accompanied the boom in natural gas drilling and production from the Marcellus Shale fields in Northern West Virginia. –
EXCERPT: “Over the past nine months, The Times reviewed more than 30,000 pages of documents obtained through open records requests of state and federal agencies and by visiting various regional offices that oversee drilling in Pennsylvania. Some of the documents were leaked by state or federal officials. Here, the most significant documents are made available with annotations from The Times.
This study was provided to The Times by an E.P.A. official who said it shows that dilution of drilling waste does not always succeed in eliminating the health risks posed by that waste. The study is marked confidential and was conducted on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute in 1990. It found a potential increased risk of cancer among people who often eat fish from waters where drilling waste is discharged. The study is relevant because state regulators in Pennsylvania have said that dilution is effectively removing the risks posed by drilling waste that is discharged into rivers. Importantly, this study found an increased risk of cancer when drilling waste was dumped into a larger body of water than Pennsylvania rivers. Furthermore, state records indicate that the radium levels found in Pennsylvania wastewater are much higher than those used in this study. Radium, for example, was found in Pennsylvania at levels over 18 times the number used in the this study. It should be noted, however, that this study did not detail actual cases of increased cancer. Rather, it modeled potential increases in cancer rates as a result of radium-laced drilling waste being discharged into large waterways.
In an e-mail exchange with The Times, Anne F. Meinhold, one of the lead authors of of the study, wrote, “I suspect that the dilution rates in a river would not be as high as for the open water discharges we considered.” She cautioned, however: “The bioaccumulation factors and ingestion rates we used were based on data collected in the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t know if bioaccumulation factors for freshwater fish would be similar or if freshwater fishermen could be assumed to eat as much fish caught over their lifetime.”
Asked about the study, Bill Bush, a spokesman for the American Petroluem Institute, said, “We have no reason to challenge what’s in the study, but to confirm it’s accurate would require someone with expertise to go over it and thoroughly digest what it says in light of any additional related research done over the past 20 years.” Asked to review the study, an expert on human health and ecological risk analysis said that it clearly shows that the drilling waste is not sufficiently diluted in some cases. As a result, the radioactivity levels left behind in receiving waters come close to reaching the threshold at which the E.P.A., under federal Superfund rules, requires a cleanup, the risk expert said.”
From the January 2015 issue of the scientific journal, “Environmental Health Perspectives” come these excerpts from a health study of 180 households (492 persons) with ground-fed water wells living within 1-2 miles of fracking in Washington County, PA:
“Gas well proximity for each household was compared with the prevalence and frequency of reported dermal, respiratory, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and neurological symptoms.
Results: The number of reported health symptoms per person was higher among residents living < 1 km (mean ± SD, 3.27 ± 3.72) compared with > 2 km from the nearest gas well (mean ± SD, 1.60 ± 2.14; p = 0.0002).
… reported skin conditions were more common in households < 1 km compared with > 2 km from the nearest gas well….
Upper respiratory symptoms were also more frequently reported in persons living in households < 1 km from gas wells (39%) compared with households 1–2 km or > 2 km from the nearest well (31 and 18%, respectively) (p = 0.004).
Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that natural gas drilling activities could be associated with increased reports of dermal and upper respiratory symptoms in nearby communities; these results support the need for further research into health effects of natural gas extraction activities.”
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/123/1/ehp.1307732.alt.pdf
Health concerns about oil field fracking have been focused on the mixed brew of chemicals injected into wells. But it is another innocuous-sounding substance — sand — that poses a more serious danger to workers.
Government overseers of workplace safety first highlighted the problem three years ago and issued a hazard alert a year later warning that high levels of fine quartz sand around fracking operations could lead to silicosis and other lung illnesses. (Read more….)
http://www.marcellusoutreachbutler.org/spill-baby-spill
EXCERPT: Fracking carries potential risks on a par with those from thalidomide, tobacco and asbestos, warns a report produced by the government’s chief scientific adviser.
The flagship annual report by the UK’s chief scientist, Mark Walport, argues that history holds many examples of innovations that were adopted hastily and later had serious negative environmental and health impacts. (Read more…)
Excerpt: “Chemical manufacturer DuPont has reported that about 23,000 pounds of a flammable toxic chemical escaped in the building where four of its workers died two weeks ago at a Houston-area plant.” (Read more...)
A ProPublica review of U.S. Department of Labor investigations has found that the oil and gas industry is also rife with this kind of of corporate banditry. Naveena Sadasivam reports:
“In 2012, the DOL began a special enforcement initiative in its Northeast and Southwest regional offices targeting the fracking industry and its supporting industries. As of August this year, the agency has conducted 435 investigations resulting in over $13 million in back wages found due for more than 9,100 workers. ProPublica obtained data for 350 of those cases from the agency. In over a fifth of the investigations, companies in violation paid more than $10,000 in back wages.” (Definitely read more….)
(NB GasVets.org: Although this article was first published 9/11/14, it’s received little attention. For more on worker health and threats to it, see GasVets’ Timeline of Federal Regulations which includes data from “What They Knew in 1988-89, and the 2011 Minority Congressional report which lists 650 fracking chemicals that are known- or potential-carcinogens, If you are a GasVet worker or a resident of “Gasland” who believes you’ve suffered harm from fracking, please participate in Damascus Citizens’ Health and Community Impacts Survey.)
“Some workers at oil and gas sites where fracking occurs are routinely exposed to high levels of benzene, a colorless gas that can cause cancer, according to a study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The agency, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommends that people limit their benzene exposure to an average of 0.1 of a part per million during their shift. But when NIOSH researchers measured the amount of airborne benzene that oil and gas workers were exposed to when they opened hatches atop tanks at well sites, 15 out of 17 samples were over that amount.
Benzene, a component of crude oil, “is of major concern because it can be acutely toxic to the nervous system, liver, and kidneys at high concentrations,” the study authors wrote. As the CDC explains, benzene interferes with the normal workings of cells.
‘It can cause bone marrow not to produce enough red blood cells, which can lead to anemia,” according to the CDC. “Also, it can damage the immune system by changing blood levels of antibodies and causing the loss of white blood cells.’”
(NB by GasVets.org: Disclosures by extraction companies should be compared against compounds and chemicals listed in a 2011 Congressional report which found that of the 750 compounds used by 14 major fracking companies, 650 contained “chemicals that are known or potential human carcinogens, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, or listed as hazardous air pollutants.” The list was extracted from documents submitted in the Pennsylvania Act 13 lawsuit and can also be found beginning at page 153 of the second part of the Brief. (Act 13 Section_3218 1_Brief_-_Part_1_of_2 (2) and Act 13 Section_3218 1_Brief_-_Part_2_of_2 (2).
Baker Hughes Inc. this month will start disclosing all of the chemicals it uses during hydraulic fracturing — the first of the major oil field service companies to adopt a policy of transparency. San Antonio Express-News, Texas. Baker Hughes Inc. this month will start disclosing all of the chemicals it uses during hydraulic fracturing — the first of the major oil field service companies to adopt a policy of transparency. San Antonio Express-News, Texas
This NASA study looks specifically at the Colorado River Basin and to quote one of the study’s authors,
“The Colorado River Basin is the water lifeline of the western United States,” said senior author Jay Famiglietti, senior water cycle scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
He said the basin, like others worldwide, was relying on groundwater to make up for the limited surface-water supply.
“We found a surprisingly high and long-term reliance on groundwater to bridge the gap between supply and demand,” he said.
“Combined with declining snowpack and population growth, this will likely threaten the long-term ability of the basin to meet its water allocation commitments to the seven basin states and to Mexico,” Famiglietti said.
The link will take you to the actual audit and a statement from a Pennsylvania coalition:
Steve Hvozdovich, Clean Water Action, 412-765-3053 x 210 cell – 412-445-9675
Karen Feridun, Berks Gas Truth, 610-678-7726 berksgastruth@gmail.com
Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, 215-369-1188 x 102 (rings through to cell)
Tracy Carluccio, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, 215-369-1188 ext. 104
Nadia Steinzor, Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project, 845-417-6505
Thomas Au, Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, 717-234-7445
Nick Kennedy, Mountain Watershed Association, 724-455-4200 x 6 www.mtwatershed.com
(To view the video, you must visit the Facebook link. Hopefully, it will be posted at IRAGE’s website soon. For your reference, here’s a map of the area.)
Per Alma Hasse of IRAGE: “LOOK what Tina and I saw when we were out photographing yesterday afternoon. The crew admitted to dumping, but said it was clean water.
I guess they must have thought we just fell off of the turnip truck yesterday, because I don’t believe that I’ve EVER seen “clean” water coming out of a vacuum tank! And if it was “clean” water that went in, I can GUARANTEE you that it wasn’t clean water coming out.
They’ve also got a hole dug there, covered by a pillowcase in this video. However, I have still pics of the hole before they put that safety device known as a pillowcase down, where it is VERY obvious they’ve been utilizing this hole in the ground to dump the contents of that vacuum tank>
One of the workers tried to tell us was a “test hole” for a well. Only one teeny weeny problem with their story, it wouldn’t make ANY sense that they would want to drill a well of ANY type– five feet from where they’ve just buried two natural gas pipelines 20′ underground!
This video will be sent to ALL the regulatory agencies today, including EPA.”
“Oil and gas operations have damaged Pennsylvania water supplies 209 times since the end of 2007, according to official determinations compiled by the Department of Environmental Protection that the agency is preparing to release for the first time.”
Former health secretary says PA has failed to seriously study the potential health impacts of fracking
By Kevin Begos, The Associated Press, July 12, 2014.
Pennsylvania’s former health secretary says the state has failed to seriously study the potential health impacts of one of the nation’s biggest natural gas drilling booms. Dr. Eli Avila also says the state’s current strategy is a disservice to people and even to the industry itself because health officials need to be proactive in protecting the public. “The lack of any action speaks volumes,” said Avila, who is now the public health commissioner for Orange County, New York. “Don’t BS the public. Their health comes first.” (Read more….)
Succinct, easily-understood breakdown of the risks and harms of gas extraction & production with a call that governments and industry heed the many alarms sounded by the medical and scientific professions. When you post it at your website and Facebook pages and hand it out at your events, maybe say something like, “After you’ve read this, please ask who has your back. Fossil fuel companies and the government? Or, doctors and scientists who aren’t being paid by either of them?” (And then encourage individuals, families and communities who’ve been harmed to consider taking DCS’ Health & Community Impacts Survey.)
From the compendium by Concerned Health Professionals of New York: “With increasing urgency, groups of medical professionals and scientists are issuing calls for comprehensive, long-term study of the full range of the potential health and ecosystem effects of drilling and fracking. These appeals underscore the accumulating evidence of harm, point to the major knowledge gaps that remain, and denounce the atmosphere of secrecy and intimidation that continues to impede the progress of scientific inquiry. Health professionals and scientists in the United States and around the world have urged tighter regulation of and in some cases, suspension of unconventional gas and oil extraction activities in order to limit, mitigate or eliminate its serious, adverse public health hazards.”
