Sand dust created from the hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from rock is one of the most dangerous threats to workers at wells blossoming across the U.S., a government safety researcher said.
About four out of five air samples from well sites in five states in the past two years exceeded recommended limits for silica particles, said Eric Esswein, an industrial hygienist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The particles in sand dust created during the so-called fracking process can lodge in the lungs and cause potentially fatal silicosis, he said today at a conference sponsored by the Institute of Medicine.
Drilling companies and their workers do a better job handling potentially toxic chemicals than they do sand dust, for which “there’s really no inherent protection” at well sites, Esswein said. Fracking involves pumping millions of gallons of chemically treated water and other matter underground to break up rock and free sources of natural gas.
“There’s lots more sand used these days in fracking operations than there was 10 or 15 years ago,” Esswein told an IOM panel that is studying health issues related to fracking.
The gas industry says that its wells, sometimes blamed by people who live nearby for air and water contamination, are safe for both workers and the communities where they drill.
“When it comes to claims that hydraulic fracturing is causing people to get sick more frequently or more severely, the data simply do not support that conclusion,” said Steve Everley, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, in an e-mail. His group advocates for drilling-friendly policies on behalf of gas companies including Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp.
Our fascist government will do anything it can to try and destroy the oil and gass industry as it has done to the coal industry.
I guess the next time I go to the beach I will have to wear full environmental gear so the sand doesn’t wipe me out