The Fossil Fuel Connection (LINK TV)

Dr. Theo Colborn speaks here about the effects of fossil fuel extraction, both vertical and horizontal drilling, and the dangerous chemicals that are released into the air during the drilling process.   Every time.   Methane is not the only or biggest worry.  Fear toluene and benzene!  The damage to healthy children is a big concern.

Theo Colborn: Letter to the President About Chemicals Disrupting Our Bodies

Theo Colborn of The Endocrine Exchange reads a letter to the President and First Lady. Dr. Colborn is 85 years old- energetic, determined, and knowledgable on the subject of the effects of chemicals on the human body.

Endocrine Disrupters: Updated List From TEDX

There are about 800 chemicals known to be used in gas drilling that are called endocrine disruptors.  Take a look at this list here. 

Endocrine effects include direct effects on traditional endocrine glands, their hormones and receptors (such as estrogens, anti-androgens, and thyroid hormones), as well as signaling cascades that affect many of the body’s systems, including reproductive function and fetal development, the nervous system and behavior, the immune and metabolic systems, the liver, bones and many other organs, glands and tissues.

So if you are pregnant, or plan to become pregnant,  have an immune system-related illness (such as MS, ALS, lupus, celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, gluten sensitivity, diabetes Type 1),  liver disease, or osteporosis, etc., stay away from gaslands wherever they are.  Young and old alike are at risk around gas wells.  I am not a doctor, but this is just common sense.

Take a look at the list of endocrine disruptors used in gas drilling.  It is an eye-opener.

Compressor Stations: Coming To a Neighborhood Near You in PA

With compressor stations being built in PA as gas drilling gets into full swing, are we fully aware of the dangers in the air? Watch these videos provided by http://shaletest.org/ to see what is being released into the air in Texas (Barnett Shale). We can't even see it with our eyes except with special cameras. However, it is well known that many chemicals used by the gas drilling industry do go airborne and are very toxic. The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX) has been able to study this issue in depth and has uncovered some very disturbing information which you can check out. TEDX discovered in their research a few years ago that, of 54 chemicals identified as being used in fracking fluid (and there are more than that), 21 are readily airborne and can cause harm to eyes, skin, the respiratory system, and the gastrointestinal tract or liver.

With gas wells come compressor stations, gathering lines, meter stations, water extraction facilities, water treatment plants, among other potentially harmful structures.  Here are a few links to information which may interest you:

http://txsharon.blogspot.com/2010/10/emissions-video-devon-compressor-in.html
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/natural-gas-compressor-station-coats-farmland-used-gear-oil
http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Lowry_Compressor-Sta.htm
http://www.stargazette.com/article/20101020/NEWS01/10200422/State+hearing+addresses+proposed+Windsor+gas+pipeline
http://dearsusquehanna.blogspot.com/2010/07/compressor-stations-noise-that-can.html

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

I Was Thirsty, So I Poured a Glass of Water and Drank It: I Didn't Know It Was Bad!

It was a simple thing. Pouring a glass of water from the faucet at Ned Prather's cabin near DeBeque, Colorado. Ned was thirsty, so he drank the water fast- right down the gullet. He drank about two thirds of the water when he began to feel strange.

His throat burned. His head pounded. His stomach hurt. He felt like he was going to suffocate.

Tests would later show the water from a spring he has drank from for decades was heavily contaminated with a carcinogenic and nervous system-damaging chemical stew known as BTEX- benzene, toluene, ethylbenzine and xylene. This was reported in an article in the October 11th issue of the Denver Post. BTEX and other volatile organic compounds come to the surface from oil and gas wells. [ For information on chemicals used in the gas drilling industry, click here.] The Endocrine Disruption Exchange did an analysis in 2007 which listed 245 chemicals used in natural gas development and delivery, 92% of which have one or more adverse health effects, the most common being skin and sensory organ toxicity, respiratory problems, neurotoxicity, and gastrointestinal and liver damage.

Last year, according to the Denver Post article, there were 206 spills in Colorado connected to or suspected in 46 cases of water contamination. This calls into question those who claim there has NEVER been a case of water contamination reportedly caused by gas drilling activity. In fact, since 2003, there have been around 300 cases in Colorado. What causes this contamination? Records show BTEX has seeped into water wells when gas well casings give way.

Eighteen wells are located within 3,000 feet of Mr. Prather's spring. An abandoned sludge pit of bad smelling production water sits on one hill above his cabin. The winter before his spring became contaminated, there was a huge diesel spill caused by a spigot accidentally left on. There are pipelines buried all over the hillsides near his cabin, some as old as three decades. Read more on pipelines here.

No one can accuse Ned Prather of being anti-gas drilling. He and his three brothers used to work for Occidental Petroleum, a company which is ironically under notice for allegedly contaminating a spring that runs on the other side of the Prather cabin. But Ned is understandingly frustrated. His spring water still stinks- an odor described as a cross between diesel fuel and permanent-wave solution. (This blogger notes: Having had many permanents in my life, I cannot imagine my water smelling like that.) Ned has supported Big Oil and Gas, he says, but he is angry now. He says the oil and gas commission in Colorado is not doing their job. The Prathers are afraid to drink water even from a new spring provided by the gas companies involved.

Prather is still unsettled about his health as well. He wonders about the effects of the tainted water even now after 16 months. When he drank the water, he had to wait 18 days before he could find out what was in the water! When he got the test results, he was advised to continue to get his blood monitored to check for liver or kidney damage. And another effect is already a fact: His business as an outfitter is done for.

Hunters don't want to stay in a cabin with suspect water or to harvest deer and elk they fear could be drinking contaminated water.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking effect is this: The Prathers say their children and grandchildren no longer want to come to the cabin.

This is the thing. Me and Dollie, we were going to leave this to our grandkids one day.

Read the Denver Post article here.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

A Dirty Secret Caught On Video: Watch This

Above is official video from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. It reveals fugitive emissions from several Barnett Shale gas well sites.

This is what Dr. Theo Colborn wrote in response to this video:

The tanks you see in this picture can be found across the gas fields in the US. They look harmless as you drive by just like the other stationary equipment you see on well pads. Without an infrared camera, as in this case, that picks up the plume of the highly active volatile chemicals escaping from the tanks, no one would suspect that the tanks could possibly pose a public health problem. As natural gas extraction continues to increase, federal, state, and local public health authorities and regulatory agencies are unprepared to deal with the problem.

--
Theo Colborn, PhD
President, TEDX (The Endocrine Disruption Exchange)
PO Box 1407
Paonia, CO 81428
direct:970-527-6548 office:970-527-4082
http://www.endocrinedisruption.org

Don Young of FWCanDO (Fort Worth) wrote:
"The thermal imaging demonstrated in this video is proof that you and your family, your pets and wildlife are breathing this new source of smog - 200 tons per day, on average, in the Metroplex - because an unscrupulous industry exploits a loophole in the federal Clean Air Act."

For more information, click here. Thanks to Texas Sharon for her fine work in the great State of Texas!

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
DEMAND CLEAN AIR TO BREATHE!