And yet another published frac study showing harm: Toxins found in fracking fluids and wastewater

Toxins Found in Fracking Fluids and Wastewater, Study Shows January 6, 2016 by Stone Hearth News

Newswise — In an analysis of more than 1,000 chemicals in fluids used in and created by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Yale School of Public Health researchers found that many of the substances have been linked to reproductive and developmental health problems, and the majority had undetermined toxicity due to insufficient information.

Further exposure and epidemiological studies are urgently needed to evaluate potential threats to human health from chemicals found in fracking fluids and wastewater created by fracking, said the research team in their paper, published Jan. 6 in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental and Epidemiology.

The research team evaluated available data on 1,021 chemicals used in fracking, a process that recovers oil and natural gas from deep within the ground by using a mixture of hydraulic-fracturing fluids that can contain hundreds of chemicals. The process creates significant amounts of wastewater and fractures the bedrock, posing a potential threat to both surface water and underground aquifers that supply drinking water, note the researchers.

… Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology advance online publication 6 January 2016; doi: 10.1038/jes.2015.81

Toxins found in fracking fluids and wastewater, study shows by Michael Greenwood, January 6, 2016, YaleNews

In an analysis of more than 1,000 chemicals in fluids used in and created by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Yale School of Public Health researchers found that many of the substances have been linked to reproductive and developmental health problems, and the majority had undetermined toxicity due to insufficient information.

Further exposure and epidemiological studies are urgently needed to evaluate potential threats to human health from chemicals found in fracking fluids and wastewater created by fracking, said the research team in their paper, published Jan. 6 in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental and Epidemiology.

The research team evaluated available data on 1,021 chemicals used in fracking, a process that recovers oil and natural gas from deep within the ground by using a mixture of hydraulic-fracturing fluids that can contain hundreds of chemicals. The process creates significant amounts of wastewater and fractures the bedrock, posing a potential threat to both surface water and underground aquifers that supply drinking water, note the researchers.

While they lacked definitive information on the toxicity of the majority of the chemicals, the team members analyzed 240 substances and concluded that 157 of them — chemicals such as arsenic, benzene, cadmium, lead, formaldehyde, chlorine, and mercury — were associated with either developmental or reproductive toxicity. Of these, 67 chemicals were of particular concern because they had an existing federal health-based standard or guideline, said the scientists, adding that data on whether levels of chemicals exceeded the guidelines were too limited to assess.

“This evaluation is a first step to prioritize the vast array of potential environmental contaminants from hydraulic fracturing for future exposure and health studies,” said Nicole Deziel, senior author and assistant professor of public health. “Quantification of the potential exposure to these chemicals, such as by monitoring drinking water in people’s homes, is vital for understanding the public health impact of hydraulic fracturing.”

[A few questions:

After many are sick or dead, along with pets, wildlife, fish and livestock, will frac companies and their enabling politicians, academics, public health agencies, research councils and de-regulators like AER, disclose complete drilling, blowout, cementing, acidizing, fracing, leak & frack hit repair, and servicing chemical details needed to finally fully assess the water, air, food and health harms?

Community of Rosebud, Alberta:

2015 12 19 Happy Anniversary & Merry Christmas, from Encana, still refusing to disclose all chemicals injected into Rosebud's drinking water aquifers

The Nightmare of Ann Craft, Ponoka, Alberta:

Alberta realtor Ann Craft

Skin burns

Water in a jar

Diana Daunhemier and family, Didsbury, Alberta:

2014 03 13 Fracturing our lives and how it affects us all by Diana Daunheimer to Alberta Surface Rights Federation

2014 03 13 Diana Daunheimer Fracturing our lives and how it affects us all Could health impacts have been prevented

2014 03 13 Diana Daunheimer Fracturing our lives and how it affects us all Your land Their dumping ground

2014 03 13 Diana Daunheimer Fracturing our lives and how it affects us all AER does not want harmed Albertans to file compliants

Howard and Nielle Hawkwood, Lochend, Alberta

What’s killing their livestock?

What’s in the air and water?

What’s making Nielle’s hair fall out?

2013 10 19 Howard Hawkwood and dead cow in the Lochend

2013 12 05 Big Oil, Big Problems Howard and Nielle Hawkwood present in Lethbridge

Ronalie and Shawn Campbell, Ponoka, Alberta

What were they breathing venting from their taps, bathing in and drinking?

2013 06 14 ERCB suddenly closes Campbell water contamination case after 8 years

Dale and Brenda Zimmerman, Wetaskiwin, Alberta.

What’s the family living with, what were they breathing, bathing in, drinking?

ZimmermanHaulingOwnWaterPhotosNicolasMesly

Loraine and Bruce Jack, Spirit River, Alberta.

Never mind the methane and ethane that blew up Jack’s water well, what else is in the water? What were the Jacks breathing venting from their water taps, bathing in, drinking?

2006 May Bruce Jack's water forced out of well because the dangerous concentrations of methane and ethane

What made Alberta Environment Deputy Minister Peter Watson (later appointed by Harper government to Chair NEB) dash to Jack’s bedside promising alternate water if Jacks kept quiet?

2006 05 09 Bruce Jack in Alberta hospital contaminated water well explosion

Who’s investigating the fractured caprock and AER & CAPP fraud?

2012 11 30 CAPPPoker CBC earthquakes caused by hydraulic fracturing report featuring Alberta rancher Howard Hawkwood Minister Ken Hughes and CAPP

Two years later, August 28, 2014

CAPP confession in the Calgary Herald:

2014 08 28 CAPP's Alex Ferguson admits coalbed methane contaminated well water, in some more infamous cases, landowners could set their water on fire

Where’s Alberta Health?

snap Alberta Health Negligence, avoiding their duty to protect the public from frac harms, 2012 07 26 email to Jessica Ernst

Where’s Health Canada?

Are they silent because of how frac harms are “studied” in Canada?

2013 09 23 AER lawyer Glenn Solomon 'OK we damaged your water well'

2013 09 23 AER lawyer Glenn Solomon 'We'll just set you up with a tank system forever'

2013 09 23 AER lawyer Glenn Solomon 'by doing that, you shut up, regulators stay off our back, we get to do it again down the street'

***

Some previous studies have observed associations between proximity to hydraulic fracturing sites and reproductive and developmental problems, but they did not investigate specific chemicals. This latest evaluation could inform the design of future studies by highlighting which chemicals could have the highest probability of health impact, note the researchers.

2014 05 24 Ernst Presentation at Courtenay CCA report Chair John Cherry gives more questions than answers, science to be made after we're fracd, use us as guinea pigs

… “We focused on reproductive and developmental toxicity because these effects may be early indicators of environmental hazards. Gaps in our knowledge highlight the need to improve our understanding of the potential adverse effects associated with these compounds,” said Elise Elliott, a public health doctoral student and the paper’s first author.

The researchers determined that wastewater produced by fracking may be even more toxic than the fracking fluids themselves. This led the researchers to conclude that more focus is needed to study not just what goes into the well, but what chemicals and by-products are generated during the fracking process.

The researchers also noted that the 781 chemicals for which information is currently lacking need to be rigorously analyzed to determine if they pose health threats.

In addition to Deziel and Elliott, the research team included Yale School of Public Health Deputy Dean Brian Leaderer; Michael Bracken, the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology (chronic diseases); and Adrienne Ettinger, an assistant professor at the school when the research was conducted. [Emphasis added]

[Refer also to:

2015 12 27: The Ultimate Frac Fraud? In EPA Draft Frac Report: “700 pages (24,000 lines) presenting the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on water resources and human health but only 2 lines concluding that it is not a universal problem”

2015 11 27: Why so much frac fraud? Why is Health Canada hiding frac hazards to drinking water? Why publicly release pathogen harms, but not frac hazards and harms?

2015 10 15: Compendium 3: Over 600 peer-reviewed papers, most demonstrating hazards and harms of fracking (unconventional oil and gas)

2015 10 14 Compendium of harms from fracing, Third Edition, updated with more than 100 new studies, by PSR and Concerned Health Professionals of NY

2014 12 12: State of Science on Harms by Fracking to Public Health and Water: Health Professionals, Scientists Release Analysis of 400 Peer-Reviewed Studies on Fracking along with Major Scientific Compendium Update

2014 10 01: Why was a 2012 Health Canada Report, admitting significant health hazards and risks to groundwater and air from hydraulic fracturing, kept from the public? ]

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