New Study Confirms Fracking Wastewater Is Cancer-Causing. “Barium and Strontium were elevated in frac flowback water exposed cells.” Encana and Alberta government testing showed barium & strontium doubled in Ernst’s water after Encana’s illegal aquifer fracing

Fracking Wastewater Is Cancer-Causing, New Study Confirms by Sayer Ji, Founder, January 4, 2016, greenmediainfo

The natural consequence of the gas industry is the production of billions of gallons of cancer-causing wastewater. A new study published in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology titled, “Malignant human cell transformation of Marcellus Shale gas drilling flow back water,” is the first study of its kind to confirm widely held suspicions concerning the carcinogenicity of fracking pollution.

The new collaborative study was conducted by scientists at esteemed institutions in both the U.S. and China and found that so-called “flow back” fracking wastewater induced malignant changes in human bronchial epithelial cells consistent with the cancerous phenotype. The same fracking wastewater was injected into mice, with 5 of the 6 developing .2 cm to .6 cm tumors as early as 3 months after injection, and with the control mice forming no tumors after 6 months. The authors concluded that their results indicate “flow back water is capable of neoplastic transformation in vitro,” i.e. fracking wastewater is capable of producing cancer in mammals. [Emphasis added]

Malignant human cell transformation of Marcellus Shale gas drilling flow back water by Yixin Yaoa, Tingting Chenc, Steven S. Shen, Yingmei Niu, Thomas L. DesMarais, Reka Linn, Eric Saunders, Zhihua Fan, Paul Lioy, Thomas Kluz, Lung-Chi Chen, Zhuangchun Wu, and Max Costa
doi:10.1016/j.taap.2015.07.011

Highlights
• This is the first report of potential cytotoxicity and transforming activity of Marcellus shale gas mining flow back to mammalian cells.
• Barium and Strontium were elevated in flow back water exposed cells. [Tests by Encana before fracing the aquifers that supply Ernst’s water well and after by Alberta Environment showed doubling of barium and strontium in Ernst’s water. Because Encana and the regulators fraudulently covered-up the company’s law violations and aquifer contamination, Ernst bathed in and ingested frac contaminated water for 2 years]
• Flow back water malignantly transformed cells and formed tumor in athymic nude mice.
• Flow back transformed cells exhibited altered transcriptome with dysregulated cell migration pathway and adherent junction pathway.

Abstract
The rapid development of high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing for mining natural gas from shale has posed potential impacts on human health and biodiversity. The produced flow back waters after hydraulic stimulation are known to carry high levels of saline and total dissolved solids. To understand the toxicity and potential carcinogenic effects of these wastewaters, flow back waters from five Marcellus hydraulic fracturing oil and gas wells were analyzed. The physicochemical nature of these samples was analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. A cytotoxicity study using colony formation as the endpoint was carried out to define the LC50 values of test samples using human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B). The BEAS-2B cell transformation assay was employed to assess the carcinogenic potential of the samples. Barium and strontium were among the most abundant metals in these samples and the same metals were found to be elevated in BEAS-2B cells after long-term treatment. BEAS-2B cells treated for 6 weeks with flow back waters produced colony formation in soft agar that was concentration dependent. In addition, flow back water-transformed BEAS-2B cells show better migration capability when compared to control cells. This study provides information needed to assess the potential health impact of post-hydraulic fracturing flow back waters from Marcellus Shale natural gas mining. [Emphasis added]

[Are the above results news to the frac industry and its health services and regulatory enablers?

2011 12 14: Trican Donates $5 million for cancer research

2011 12 14: Frac Company Trican Donates $5 Million to Fight Childhood Cancer ]

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