Serious Health Conditions are now Known to be Associated with Fracking
Sackville Tribune-Post
20 September 2013
Illnesses that have been reported by people living and working in close proximity
to "unconventional" shale gas drilling sites (within 2.5 km of gas development) have only recently been studied by health professionals even though the technology used to frack has been around for the last decade. This is no surprise, it takes time to accumulate studies and devise meaningful statistics on the workings of any industry, no less one as secretive and protective of its image as big oil and gas.
In 2012 a paper entitled "Environmental Health Perspectives" tasked advisory committees to consider the health of residents living over the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. Researchers later discovered that not one of the 52 people on the committee had a background in health sciences. Now we know better. Now we commission studies appointing the most highly qualified individuals we can find and then proceed to ignore or discredit their findings if they are contrary to government policy. We have recently seen this happen in New Brunswick.
At the well site emissions are substantially increased from the following procedures:
- Venting- releasing methane gas and CO2 into the atmosphere during well, pipeline and tank operations and maintenance.
- Flaring- burning off gas that is uneconomical to collect and sell, emitting a host of chemicals.
- Heavy construction- setting up and maintaining well sites with the attendant dust and nitric oxide that produce smog.
- Diesel exhaust- from vehicles travelling to and from the well site.
Keeping natural gas in a pressurized state for travel requires compressor sub-stations located every 40 to 100 miles en route. These stations also release emissions.
In 2011 the journal "Human and Ecological Risk Assessment" classified approximately 632 chemicals that are used to frack. 75% of the 632 affect skin, eyes and sensory organs, respiratory organs and the gastrointestinal tract. 45% could affect the brain/nervous system, the immune and cardiovascular systems and the kidneys. 37% would affect the endocrine system and 25% could cause cancer and mutations.
Dr. Theo Colburn an American scientist who has been studying the effects of air pollution on human health for decades, states in the paper "National Gas Operations From a Public Health Perspective": "Numerous systems, most notably the endocrine system are sensitive to very low levels of chemicals in parts per billion or less. Health impairment could remain hidden for decades and
span generations." There is an impact on mental health as well, with the emotional and financial stress of living in what has been termed fracking hell, everything from light and noise pollution to unexpected medical symptoms to owning a home on land which has lost all of its property value.
The industry has based its work ethic on the premise that it is acceptable to drill without considering the possibility of future risks. If governments won't listen to the public's concern we can adopt the Precautionary Principle, a concept that obliges government to have a "duty of care" towards its citizens. We can say to the shale gas industry, as residents of the province; if your actions do not poison air and water, accelerate climate change and threaten public health - prove it. Until they do that, we have the right to do whatever we can to prevent them from
establishing shale gas exploration in our communities.
Donna Mclellan for the
Tantramar Alliance Against Hydrofracking
No comments:
Post a Comment