![]() This information goes to nobody: Not the states, not the EPA, not the fracking companies, and certainly not the public. The fracking companies sometimes say that even they don’t know what chemicals are in the fluids, because the manufacturers make trade secret claims. “First, some states ask the fracking companies, not the chemical manufacturers, to disclose the chemicals in their frack fluids. “There are two reasons why a reporting rule is necessary. We can assume that these are just as bad. There are many chemicals that are being concealed from us. These are just the chemicals we know about. “We have learned that many of the hundreds of chemicals used in fracking are toxic and that some are endocrine disrupters, causes of respiratory problems, or known carcinogens. Since we petitioned the EPA for a rule, we have learned a lot about the chemicals fracking companies are using – but not enough. “Three years ago, in response to serious public concern about problems related to oil and gas development, we petitioned EPA on behalf of more than 100 groups in 23 states to require reports of the chemicals used in fracking exploration and production. ![]() “We’re pleased that the EPA is considering requiring chemical manufacturers and processors to report the chemical substances and mixtures in fracking products. The following is a statement from Deborah Goldberg, managing attorney of Earthjustice's fracking litigation program: If a rule is proposed, it goes through another period of public notice and comment. The EPA will seek public comment on whether it should move forward with a proposed rule. Today’s news is that EPA is issuing an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Perhaps they are also in our surface and groundwater as they are in Garfield County.In 2011, a large coalition of public health, environmental, and good government groups filed a petition (PDF) demanding that full health and safety information be made available to the EPA for all of the chemicals used in oil and gas development, including the controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Fracking is when oil and gas companies blast millions of gallons of water treated with chemicals into the ground to force oil and gas from hard-to-reach places deep inside the earth. Along with a fracking-fueled gas rush have come troubling reports of poisoned drinking water, polluted air, mysterious animal deaths, and sick families. PFAS are the same chemicals that DuPont used in Teflon, as documented in Mark Ruffalo’s film Dark Waters. ![]() The EPA also lists elevated cholesterol levels as one of the health risks from PFAS this boosts the profit of companies that make statins, while we often blame elevated cholesterol levels on eating red meat and on lifestyle choices. It takes years for industry workers to get sick from fracking, similar to effects of Agent Orange, uranium mining and smoking. Here in Colorado, industry continues to deny these and other dangers of fracking despite widespread illness and death and destruction of of the natural environment. (See Fracking with “Forever Chemicals” at psr.org). The so-called Halliburton Loophole allows for use of these known toxins, since Dick Cheney proclaimed fracking fluid “proprietary” they have been used in more than 1,200 wells in six U.S. Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances are endocrine disruptors and carcinogens, causing preterm labor, birth defects, childhood leukemias, thyroid problems, testicular and kidney cancer, and more, according to the EPA. Hiroko Tabuchi’s article in The New York Times on July 12 (“EPA Approved Toxic Chemicals for Fracking a Decade Ago, New Files Show”) highlights what scientists and the oil and gas industry have known for decades: Fracking fluid contains life-threatening toxins that have polluted most humans and non-human primates as well as water, air and soil.
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