$toxic chemicals fracking decade new files$

$toxic chemicals fracking decade new files$

Records indicate that the chemical giant DuPont asked for the approval, with reporting responsibility later passing to its spinoff, Chemours Co. Regulators also noted test results indicating 'liver toxicity, blood toxicity, and male reproductive toxicity' as well as 'concern for immunosuppression and oncogenicity.'īut the agency signed off on the chemicals for use despite those misgivings. The presumed perfluorinated degradants for these PMN substances include.

$toxic chemicals fracking decade new files$

'EPA has concerns that these degradation products will persist in the environment, could bioaccumulate or biomagnify, and could be toxic (PBT) to people, wild mammals, and birds based on data on analog chemicals, including PFOA and. The document went on to cite 'preliminary evidence' that the chemicals could degrade upon use and become persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, or PBT. 'EPA is concerned that these perfluorinated degradation products may be released to the environment from incomplete incineration of the PMN substances at low temperatures,' the agency wrote in a heavily redacted consent order. They also highlighted potential problems with disposal of the chemicals. At the time, regulators worried that the chemicals used could break down into compounds similar to PFOA - a type of PFAS that is no longer manufactured in the United States due to concerns about its health implications, including causing cancer. The revelations further public awareness about the extent of PFAS use at a time when the chemicals are facing fire from lawmakers and regulators.Īccording to the documents released to the advocacy group under FOIA, EPA reviewed the three proposed chemicals in 2010. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, recent findings show they are also likely in common plastic packaging, bringing them into close contact with food. PFAS (which number in the thousands) are prized for their grease- and water-resistant properties, and are widely used in everything from household items to industrial firefighting foam. 'Considering the terrible history of pollution associated with PFAS, EPA and state governments need to move quickly to ensure that the public knows where these chemicals have been used and is protected from their impacts.'

$toxic chemicals fracking decade new files$

'The evidence that people could be unknowingly exposed to these extremely toxic chemicals through oil and gas operations is disturbing,' report author Dusty Horwitt said in a statement. Those activities occurred in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming. are among companies that have used either PFAS or chemicals that can degrade into PFAS in fracking at more than 1,200 wells between 20, according to industry records. Perhaps they are also in our surface and groundwater as they are in Garfield County.A report out today examines the Obama EPA’s approval of three PFAS chemicals for use in oil and gas production, despite concerns among agency staff and indicators that the agency may have relied on 'dubious assumptions.'Įxxon Mobil Corp. 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.

$toxic chemicals fracking decade new files$

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.

$toxic chemicals fracking decade new files$

Toxic chemicals fracking decade new files