Fracking Moratorium Urged by U.S. Doctors

[kpete]

Fracking Moratorium Urged by U.S. Doctors
By Alex Wayne - Jan 9, 2012 10:48 AM PT


The U.S. should declare a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in populated areas until the health effects are better understood, doctors said at a conference on the drilling process.

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Fracking injects water, sand and chemicals into deep shale formations to free trapped natural gas. A boom in production with the method helped increase supplies, cutting prices 32 percent last year. The industry, though, hasn’t disclosed enough information on chemicals used, Paulson said, raising concerns about tainted drinking water supplies and a call for peer- reviewed studies on the effects. The EPA is weighing nationwide regulation.

“We’ve got to push the pause button, and maybe we’ve got to push the stop button,” said Adam Law, an endocrinologist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, in an interview at a conference in Arlington, Virginia that’s the first to examine criteria for studying the process.

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A top scientist at the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that fluids used in hydraulic fracturing contain “potentially hazardous chemical classes.” The compounds include petroleum distillates, volatile organic compounds and glycol ethers, said Christopher Portier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health.

MORE:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-09/fracking-moratorium-urged-by-u-s-doctors-until-health-studies-conducted.html
http://www.waterpollutionlawyers.com/benzene/

[Vincardog]

1. Let's start by making the Fracking Cos' officers and investors financially responsible

for all harm their process causes.

[Kolesar]

3. They should have to put huge sums in "bond" to pay off any health and environmental damage

...that might occur.

Oil companies have all the money in the world...literally. They can fund it.

[asjr]

4. And be forced to drink the water.

[drm604]

5. Yes. If they think it's so safe,

then they shouldn't have any problem with drinking the well water where they're drilling.

[fasttense]

14. We should also allow each executive to be held personally responsible for all

civil litigation as well. When their own money, mansions, stocks and savings are at stake they will not be so caviler about the entire process. Making them drink the water and live in the polluted area is also a real good idea.

[april]

7. do you mean like BP?

[freshwest]

2. Hope they can stand strong against the 'threats' being made...

[gtar100]

6. And the oil execs just laughed and laughed and laughed.

Until the EPA really starts to do what its name sake implies, these people won't stop fracking because they believe they don't have to worry about the consequences. Maybe when they start drinking their own filth will they start to get a clue. By then, however, it'll be too late for the rest of us.

It is time to put the oil industry into public hands and make it entirely not-for-profit. Then we can force all these executives to clean up with their own bare hands the messes they have made of the earth. Remember, they don't care if you or your children get cancer from their pollution.

[Marnie]

8. Why just in populated area?

Rural people are more restricted in their water supply and more likely to rely on well water.

[sarcasmo]

9. Don't drink the water without a filter.

[otohara]

10. Thank You Doctors

now expect to be trashed by the oil/gas industries.

[CoffeeCat]

13. Yes, we know how awful...

...these Marxist, anti-Americans physicians are. They're trying to turn us into a European Socialist country. Pretty
soon, this country will look like Greece, if we listen to these yahoo doctors.

The NERVE of these anti-capitalist Marxist, Socialists!

[Bronson]

11. Debris from gas well falls from the sky

Evidently there are other dangers from drilling in a populated area:

'Harlan City Police Cpl. George Young said “his understanding” of the incident was that while the company Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation was drilling for gas on Grays Knob mountain, a 4-inch ceramic ball, weighing approximately one pound was deflected into the Harlan ARH Hospital’s direction, making a hole in the ground approximately 6-inches wide and 5-inches deep.” He said the balls were supposed to be deflected toward the mountains and he felt it was an equipment malfunction which caused the ball to fall into a populated area. He said it was “just an odd coincidence.”

Harlan ARH Hospital CEO Dan Stone said two employees of the hospital were outside “enjoying the beautiful weather” when they observed an object hit the ground causing debris to come up from the ground."

Read more: The Harlan Daily Enterprise - Debris from gas well falls from the sky

http://www.harlandaily.com/view/full_story/16740080/article-Debris-from-gas-well-falls-from-the-sky?instance=secondary_news_left_column

[Ilsa]

12. We let the oil & gas industry give us cancer and poison us

and we give them all kinds of ridiculous tax breaks and handouts to do it.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

15. K&R. nt.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

16. How about a facking moratorium being urged by politicians on the take?

How much damage must be done before they are willing to have a moratorium?

An investigation?

A return of campaign contributions?