Chemicals: Living near a shale gas well is to be a guinea pig in the largest uncontrolled chemical experiment in the world. And the people running it don’t have to tell you the chemicals to which you are being exposed. Roughly 650 chemicals are used in fracking and we have no information whatsoever of the health or environmental effects of half of them. Those that have been studied are associated with cancer and/or damage to the brain and nervous systems, immune and cardiovascular systems, kidneys, liver, eyes, skin, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract and reproductive system. There is no information how they react when mixed with each other or with naturally occurring toxic elements in the earth. The industry says the percentage of chemicals mixed with water is small, but a frack using 9 million gallons of water, of which only 1% is made up of chemicals, still results in 90,000 gallons of chemicals injected into the earth.
Read More:
- How slick water and black shale in fracking combine to produce radioactive waste (Dartmouth College, Sept 2018)
- Environmental Impacts of Natural Gas
- Compendium of the Risks and Harms Associated with Fracking